A study paid for by the British Heart Foundation, reported in Daily Telegraph proposes that a govt tax on sugary drinks may help to lower obesity in young adults, the logic is that increased cost of buying coke or 7 up will change their buying habits toward more lower cost diet sugar free drinks. The income generated from this sugar tax will boost govt coffers by £280 million a year, money which, according to govt spin machine will be spent on educating manufacturers to lower levels of saturated fats in foods.
Firstly, it is a dangerous precedent to encourage kids and teenagers to drink more diet drinks, laced with artificial sweeteners like aspartame, phosphorus, colours and additives,studies show that diet drinks don't help reduce obesity and cause more harm than good.The British Heart Foundation should be discouraging the consumption of sugar free diet drinks.
Secondly, food manufacturers should not be adding saturated fats in foods, saturated fats are only healthy for us when they are unadulterated, naturally occurring as nature intended,in organic cheese, free range grass fed meats, eggs, natural organic yoghurts etc. Heart disease and obesity is propagated by food manufacturers by adulterating saturated fats and polyunsaturates into trans fats sold as processed foods. When will the British Heart Foundation and the Government Health Department wake up and smell the roses of what is really needed to prevent and combat obesity. Young adults need to be educated correctly about good nutrition principles, they need to be inspired to take individual responsibility for their health - it's the role of parents first and then schools to action and implement this.
