As Mexico's Sugary Drink Tax Turns 1 Year Old, US Hopes It Can Sway American Voters Maria Gallucci - IBTimes
go to original January 13, 2015

Sugar Tax Helping Mexicans' Health (KPBSSanDiego)

Mexicans are guzzling fewer sodas, juices and flavored waters since a nationwide sugary drink tax took effect in 2014. The policy aims to help curb rising rates of obesity and diabetes in Mexico, which recently overtook the U.S. as the world’s fattest country. Now public health proponents north of the border say they’re hoping Mexico’s positive start can sway U.S. voters to adopt similar taxes.

“If it’s shown that Mexico’s soft drink tax is effective in reducing soda consumption, and that in turn has an effect on Mexico’s obesity rate, I think you’ve got a pretty good case,” said Michael Roberts, executive director of UCLA’s Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy.

In both nations, epidemics of weight gain and associated diseases can be tied partly to the soaring consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, which has more than doubled in the U.S. and Mexico in recent decades. About half of all Americans drink soft drinks daily while Mexicans as a whole drink the equivalent of 3.6 million cans of Coca-Cola each day.

... Proponents of taxes on sugary drinks, including public health researchers, say raising the price of sweetened beverages is an effective way to reduce consumption and, in turn, lower health risks. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto approved the action in October 2013 after years of interest from national health experts, who saw the tax as one antidote to Mexico’s alarming diabetes rates. As many as 10 million Mexicans have diabetes, or roughly one-sixth of the adult population, according to government data. Nearly a half-million people died from diabetes from 2006 to 2012, a rise of nearly 60 percent from the previous six-year period.

Read the rest at IBTimes

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!