Now that we’re up to date on the health behind sugar, it’s important to look at why the sugar tax has been so controversial in the UK.
The question of sugar is a question of dose: after all, the difference between a medicine and a poison is dosage! We need sugar: it’s the body’s source of energy. The important thing is that people learn their own individual ‘dosage’ and are able to tailor their sugar intake around it. Your dose can relate to many things: your age, body type, metabolism, fitness, etc.
For example, the amount of sugar an incredibly fit athelete has to consume in a day is much higher than for an everyday office worker; but it’s good for all of us to consume more sugar and do more exercise! One suggested answer to the sugar tax’s multi-faceted issue is more school playing fields, more physical education, and more of an understanding of “the imperative of exercise”. This way we are gaining something in our society, rather than taking away.
A truly terrible thing around the issue of sugar is the lack of transparent ethics in brands. It’s one thing to put the onus of understanding your dose on sugar on people: a big issue is the unexpected, and at worst undeclared, added sugar in almost every processed and packaged food which we buy in supermarkets. This added sugar in each portion adds up very quickly to a person’s daily need: without us knowing or thinking about it at all. Awareness is crucial, but this awareness must not just be on our side, but on the side of all food producers.
That’s why DrinksWorks are always careful to label clearly and deliberately how much sugar is in our products, and how much of a 250ml serve is a person’s sugar dose. By moving forward towards awareness and understanding on both sides: the people and the brands, we can create a mutual understanding and healthy awareness around sugar that doesn’t need a sugar tax to regulate people’s intake.
Join us next time, for the future of sugar, as we continue to #GetSavvyAboutSugar.
