Call for tax on sugary drinks gains momentum

New AMA alliance with the Rethink Sugary Drink campaign gains traction.

As well as the AMA’s #SicklySweet campaign calling for a tax on sugary drinks the AMA has recently joined an alliance with Rethink Sugary Drinks. A media release sent out this week by the alliance which the AMA contributed to has gained good traction in the media generating 29 media items and reaching just over two million people in just two days.

The Australian Beverages Council which represents the nation’s non-alcoholic drinks industry, reacted putting out its own media release saying, “These types of discriminatory and regressive taxes are a last century fix to a complex and contemporary problem, which will only raise the cost of the weekly shop for households that can least afford it.”

Data released last month by the Australia Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has revealed that overweight (including obesity) is the most costly risk factor for Australia’s health spending by disease, contributing 18% ($4.3 Billion) of health spending on diseases from modifiable risk factors.

The disease spending attributable to overweight and obesity included spending on serious chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia, coronary heart disease, kidney disease and many types of cancer.