Sugar Tax - the reality........

We have passed over this in another thread, but I can't remember which one. I am not sure when the sugar tax came into force, as it all happened whilst I was having my enforced sleep - but now that I am up and about again, I am certainly noticing the effects!

I appreciate that the sentiment behind this came from the right place, although I do not agree that we should be being dictated to in this way by our elected elite. Yes, they should regulate product standards, but to dictate to us all what we can and can not consume (and yes, they are dictating, albeit via taxation) is overstepping the mark in my opinion.

I can hear some people now screaming at their screens, calling me all the eejits under the sun, and saying that I should just drink water etc, and that is fair comment; however, I have never liked drinking just water - no idea why, but I just don't.

Mostly, I drink tea or coffee, but those are generally confined to the early part of the day - thereafter, my preference was to drink juice, mostly squash, but occasionally something carbonated. Mostly, I would choose the squash with the very high fruit content, as it was the flavour rather than the sweetness that I wanted.

I have never taken to artificial sweeteners, as they have a horrible aftertaste and leave an odd dryness with a sort of numbness in my mouth.

The vast majority of drinks manufacturers have now changed their recipes to include tons of sweeteners, and try as I might, I just cannot get on with them. We tried a couple of squashes from Morrisions recently, and whilst the ladies didn't mind them, I found them overly sweet and tasting nothing like the fruits they were supposed to be.

Now, here is the irony. All this was done in the name of health.........

The other day, at work, a colleague was popping to the canteen and I asked him to fetch me a bottle of coke or something; he came back with a bottle of Pepsi, 330ml and a nice glass bottle - £1. I was a bit surprised at the price given the size (essentially the same size as a can), but I later learned that the price would have been the same in local shops.

Later that day, at home, I was looking at Morrisons website, doing some shopping, and in the offers was a multipack of beer - 18 x 440ml cans for £14.

So, Pepsi at £1 for 330ml works out at about £3.03 per litre, whereas the beer works out at about £1.77 a litre! Now, I am no rocket scientist, but when you make juice so expensive that you can drink beer for almost half the price, surely all that is going to happen is more people will drink beer?

 

Hello @Fat Controller this is the thread

Sugar Tax

 

Sorry, I don't really have an opinion on this (that makes a change ) as I don't drink squash, carbonated drinks or beer.

All I know is that sugar is not good for you and is not only put in drinks but is in a fairly high quantity in most (almost all) pre-prepared foods. If they say that something is low in fat they have usually replaced the fat with added sugar!

We should all get back to making our own meals

 

Thank you @wiseowl - I will have a look at merging this one into it later on.

I think you have hit the nail quite squarely on the head Michael - the sugar tax was brought in because of the rising obesity, particularly in children (hence it was sugary drinks that were targetted) - however, in doing so what they have actually managed to achieve is to have our kids filling up on even more of the things (because they are now deemed to be 'diet', you get the "its not bad for them anymore" attitude), whilst now also having them packed full of chemicals that still haven't quite cleared their reputations.

Worse still, you will definitely have a situation now where adults will now defer to a pint of beer (or three) rather than having a pint of fruit juice, not only because it is cheaper but also because it doesn't have that nasty after taste.

If the people that came up with this as a solution are so clever, how could they not see what was going to result? Oh, and who voted on this - I don't recall ever reading such nannying rubbish in anyone's manifesto?