obesity – Joerg's Ramblings

Less obesity but lots more strokes and dementia!? Thanks, Leo!

So, our wonderful politicians, led by former doctor and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar decided that they have to protect us from ourselves and force us to be healthier by introducing the Sugar Tax (correctly: Sugar Sweetened Drinks Tax). The Irish Heart Foundation and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland also supported the tax and claimed it will be a significant step in the fight against obesity.

The goal is to move people away from drinks that contain sugar and while there is the alternative of just drinking water, the probability is HUGE that people will move to diet drinks if they want to avoid paying the significant surcharge on drinks that contain sugar. Drinks containing between five and eight grams of sugar have experienced a price increase of 20 cent per litre and drinks with more than eight grams of sugar per 100 ml cost now even 30 cent more per litre.

All this to FORCE us to be healthier!

But did Leo Varadkar, the Irish Heart Foundation and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland really do their homework? Does avoiding sugar definitely make us healthier?

Interestingly there is a study that was published by the American Heart Foundation in April 2017, that indicates that our politicians and the two health-sector organisations mentioned above, probably did something really really bad to the people in Ireland!

The study looked at 2888 people for stroke and 1484 people for dementia and checked if sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drink consumption had any impact on the risk of suffering a stroke or getting dementia.

And they found that artificially sweetened soft drink consumption was associated with a higher risk of stroke and dementia, while sugar-sweetened beverages were not associated with stroke or dementia!! :-O

So if thanks to Leo and his boys you moved from sugar sweetened drinks to artificially sweetened drinks to save some money, you might not die of obesity, but you are much more likely to die of or at least suffer of a stroke OR lose your mind!

In other words: Adults who had one or more diet drinks a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop dementia and 3 times more at risk of suffering a stroke compared to people who didn’t drink diet drinks. And drinking diet drinks is far worse than drinking drinks sweetened with sugar.

Great job, Leo!! Thanks! :-(

Sugar Drink Tax? Another nonsensical idea of our government!

Taxes are raised in Ireland (and most other countries) not to regulate something or to improve something directly related to the taxed item, but for the state to make money. But now our government wants to introduce a tax on Sugar-containing drinks to fight obesity.

Well, first of all, I can’t imagine that it will have the slightest impact on obesity. If you buy a bottle of coke for EUR 2 today, then the 20% or 40c increase won’t stop tooo many people from buying that bottle. And if you buy a non-branded 2l bottle of sugar-containing soft drink for maybe 55 or 75 cent then the new price would be 66 cent or 90 cent respectively. Does anybody really think an increase of 11 or 15 cent will change the buying behaviour significantly. Nonsense! Obesity will not be affected in the slightest by these increases.

The only area where it could have an impact is in a pub or restaurant where you already pay a very high EUR 3 or more for a small bottle of soft drink. If the 20% increase would apply there than that is a 60 cent surcharge despite the fact that the tiny 0.2 l bottle has much less of an obesity effect than the 11 cent more expensive 2 litre bottle. Odd!

Another interesting aspect is a comparison to other taxes: If Sugar Drink tax is raised to fight obesity, then Motor tax and fuel tax should be used to improve the roads or even better to improve public transport, but it isn’t directly tied to either. It also should maybe help to reduce accidents, especially fatal ones. But that is not the case. Alcohol tax (duties) should be used to reduce alcoholism, but that is not the case. Instead it is just pocketed by the state.

Actually if a Sugar Drink Tax will be introduced to fight obesity, a NEW (and additional) Alcohol Drink Tax should be also introduced to fight alcohol related illnesses. Because 88 deaths per month in Ireland are DIRECTLY attributable to alcohol and over 14,000 people were admitted to the liver unit in St Vincent’s Hospital for the treatment of alcohol dependence in 2011 and every day, 1,500 beds in our hospitals are occupied by people with alcohol-related problems. In 2012 the whopping amount of EUR 1.5 billion was needed for alcohol related hospital discharges. (Statistics are from alcoholireland.ie/facts/alcohol-related-harm-facts-and-statistics/)

Why am I so much against a Sugar Drink Tax? Because most of us are well able to either limit our sugar intake or make up for it through exercise. But the government doesn’t suggest that people who are not obese do not pay the tax, instead they plan to raise the tax indiscriminately. Even if you are stick thin, you will have to pay the 20% more. That just doesn’t make sense.

Tag: obesity

Less obesity but lots more strokes and dementia!? Thanks, Leo!

Sugar Drink Tax? Another nonsensical idea of our government!