- A recent study has revealed that slashing the sugar in soft drinks by a third could save thousands of Australian lives.
- It’s estimated that this reformulation could prevent 155,000 premature deaths.
- This could also reverse the obesity crisis. So, what are we waiting for?
A whopping 155,000 lives could be saved by simply reducing the amount of sugar in our soft drinks, says research.
But, it’s also the number of lives that we’ll continue to lose if we don’t change our sugary habits.
This recent study, published in Nutrients journal, investigated three different ways of reducing the population’s sugar intake in sweetened beverages. Firstly, they looked at reducing the sugar content in beverages by 5 per cent, as well as by 30 per cent, and then reducing all bottle and can sizes to just 375 ml.
All three investigations had positive outcomes in terms of increasing the life-years of Australians, but researchers concluded that reducing sugar content by a third (30 per cent) would see the greatest benefit for our population.
In fact, it was found that by simply reformulating soft drinks, we could prevent:
- 70,300 heart disease related deaths
- 47,000 type 2 diabetes related deaths
- 14,300 stroke related deaths
- 24,100 breast, bowel, endometrial and kidney cancer related deaths
Not only this, but the reduction would see a cost saving of $8 billion over the average Australian lifetime.
This information has been released at an incredibly poignant time, as the sugar tax gains momentum worldwide, and Tipping the Scales (the Australian eight-point plan to reduce obesity) is examined here in Australia.
It’s no secret we’re advocating for Australia to get on board with the sugar tax – we’ve even reactivated our sugar tax petition. But, this study simply proves that reformulation is key, and sugar tax bands would encourage manufacturers to reformulate their products in order to sit beneath the tax threshold.
If you’re still on the fence about the sugar tax, Jamie Oliver has come out today to blow doubters out of the water. In 2015, Jamie’s Italian restaurant chain began adding 10p to every drink that contained added sugar. Since then, they’ve seen sales drop as much as 9 – 11 per cent.
All the research is there, so it begs the question, what are we waiting for Australia? Show your support and spread the word by signing our petition here!
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