Taxation of Sugar Sweetened Beverages Research Assignment

Taxation of Sugar Sweetened Beverages
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Taxation of Sugar Sweetened Beverages
Sugar Sweetened Beverages, abbreviated as SSBs, are the foods or any beverages that contain added sugar. It is the basic or primary source of added sugar in foods and beverages and is present in foods consumed by young children and adolescents (Keller & Bucher Della Torre, 2015). In any particular calorie intake of the young, youths and adolescents, there is an estimated 10% to 15% of added sugar contributed by sugar sweetened beverages amounting to 350 to 2000 calories. There is huge concern by health practitioners on the amount of sugar sweetened beverages taken by children and youths in relation to weight gain and which has been approximated to be adding 4lbs to 11 lbs in an analysis done and recorded in a year (Keller & Bucher Della Torre, 2015).
There are numerous effects of sugar sweetened beverages on weight gain or obesity because their consumption increases the amount of energy taken, thus increasing weight. Moreover, facts and extensive research show that obesity is the leading risk that causes diabetes (Gregg & Albright, 2015). To curb this problem, the World Health Organization has recently published guidelines and rules that provide adults and children with recommendations that monitor the intake of free sugars such as added sugars, free sugars, fruit juices and the amount of naturally present sugars in honey and fruit concentrates (Hodge et al., 2018). The notion of the organization is to strongly advice the population to reduce the amount of free sugar intake in the course of their lives in order to obtain the positive health benefits (Hodge et al., 2018).
An analysis in form of a trial was done to determine the impact of free sugar or sugar sweetened beverages on children and body weight (De Rutyer et al., 2012). The results were astonishing; there was an increase of 6.5 kilograms on children who consumed food without sugar and 7.37 on children who consumed food with sugar. Therefore, the sugar group gained a significantly less body fat evident in the skinfold thickness but there was significant gain in weight in children who consumed food with sugar (De Rutyer et al., 2012). Further, these types of food rich in free sugar are readily available in schools because that is the environment where children spend most of their time and therefore, that is the institution that provides them with food with the school appreciating the idea because sweetened beverages are a good source of income (De Rutyer et al., 2012).
In order to further prevent the critical problem of obesity and diabetes being on the rise and facilitated in schools, Mexico implemented an excise tax increase of 1 peso per L of sugar sweetened beverages as from January 1st 2014 Ribaudo & Shortle, 2011). Other countries followed suit including the United Kingdom whose aim was to impose taxes on the product with the aim of examining its effect on obesity. In the United Kingdom, a similar taxation had earlier been implemented where the amount of cigarettes and alcohol was reduced in order to reduce its consumption and in addition to...