The British Association for Applied\u00a0Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy says a tax on all unhealthy food would disincentivise consumption and ‘provide\u00a0tax receipts towards health care expenditure’.<\/p>\n
The British Medical Association wants a\u00a020% tax on sugary drinks. We now know that excess sugar can damage\u00a0teeth, promote obesity, type 2 diabetes and also perhaps Alzheimer’s diesease (as type 3 diabetes).<\/p>\n
In a statement published earlier today Miguel Toribio-Mateas, Chairman of the British Association for Applied\u00a0Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT) said\u00a0“All unhealthy foods should carry VAT. This would be possible if the\u00a0EU Nutrient Profiles, were in place. They are an important part of the implementation of the 2004 EU Nutrition and\u00a0Health Claims Regulation designed to ensure that health claims are not made on unhealthy foods. But the nutrient\u00a0profiles are 11 years overdue making a farce of the EU health claims regime. The public has been left totally\u00a0unprotected. Once unhealthy foods can be formally defined \u00a0based on nutrient profiles, they should all become\u00a0VATable. This would go a long way to both disincentivising the public from consuming unhealthy food and providing\u00a0tax receipts towards health care expenditure.”<\/p>\n
Mr Toribio-Mateas added “educating the general public should be the primary strategy to halt the rise in chronic\u00a0preventable diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. This is now are essential for preserving our National Health\u00a0Service’s\u00a0budget for more acute needs. These conditions do not happen overnight but develop insidiously before\u00a0they become apparent. There is no doubting\u00a0the evidence which shows that every single food and lifestyle choice\u00a0one makes, can influence one’s health positively or negatively. This is\u00a0particularly true for sugar intake.\u201d<\/p>\n