At long final,there is a plan to improve children’s health, but it must be the start of a more widespread campaignSometimes it’s all approximately the noise. On Wednesday, and George Osborne did more to tackle the country’s addiction to sugar than decades of government education campaigns. It was a huge and welcome surprise to campaigners and confounded all of us who believed that the food and drink corporations had got the Conservative party vacuum-packed in a treacle marinade. A punitive tax on soft drinks manufacturers? Osborne Tango’d everyone.
Of course,the noise will do more than the tax. That won’t own much effect on British waistlines or on type 2 diabetes rates for years, whether ever. It is a token. But the sound and fury generated by Osbornes announcement and the coming fight-back from the corporations will. It is the strongest message ever sent by government that excess sugar can be toxic, or especially to children and that sugar-pushing corporations are exploiting taxpayers and the NHS. Treating obesity and diabetes costs the NHS £13.8bn a year and,just as for tobacco, the government will tackle the problem by punishing your and the companies’ pockets.
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Source: theguardian.com