Tax on sugary drinks would reduce childhood obesity

Drop in childhood obesity in Seattle after the implementation of a soda tax. Taxing sugary drinks could really help combat the excessive weight gain of children and adolescents.

Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at Health Magazine on France 5, talks to us today about the soda tax which can help reduce the consumption of sugary drinks. The soda tax on sugary drinks has existed in France since the 2010s, without much impact study on the consequences, but we may have the beginnings of a response in the United States, where this tax was implemented. place in places, and the results are good, a study confirms it.

franceinfo: This study is now confirmed by the results obtained in Seattle in the United States?

Geraldine Zamansky: Exactly, the progression of childhood overweight was better slowed in Seattle, from the first year of application of a tax against sugary drinks called the “soda tax”, in 2018. These are the results of monitoring nearly 1,800 children and adolescents, living in this city, compared to 4500 “controls” in neighboring non-taxed cities, are positive forith almost doubled effectiveness for those who already suffered from obesity.

And I must avoid the too long explanation of their method of measurement based on a much improved body mass index. The main thing is that their analysis proves the benefit of the tax for the health of children in all social classes, as explained to me by Dr Jessica Jones-Smith, specialist in obesity at the University of Washington.

So the population of Seattle has reduced its purchases of sugary drinks?

Yes PDuring this first year of monitoring, its consumption fell by 22%. It must be said that the increase in prices, linked to the tax, was significant, and sometimes explained by merchants in their departments. For example + 60% for a 2 liter bottle which went from 2 dollars to 3.20 dollars. Without any positive campaign of associated explanation, since the new mayor of Seattle who arrived between the vote and the application of the tax was opposed to it.

But Dr Jones-Smith told me that the population still very clearly translated a sharp increase in prices by the presence of a large quantity of sugar, dangerous for health. As a reminder, a single can contains 20 to 35 g, depending on its contents. Or 30 to 50% of the daily amount of sugar recommended by the WHO for a child aged 4 to 7 years. So if he takes 2 in a day, everything else is too much. The potential impact on excess weight is clearly very rapid.

And so the conclusion of the study is that the “soda tax” can really protect children?

Yes, Dr. Jones-Smith gave me an effective comparison. With this tax, the health of children in Seattle improved as much in one year as after two years of a physical activity and health education program in Somerville, on the other side of the United States. . So if all these protective measures were combined, childhood obesity would decline more quickly. We recall that in France, this type of tax has existed since 2013, with an evolution in 2018, but its precise assessment, like that of Seattle, is still lacking.

The study