The doctors’ union has published a report, Food for Thought, which says urgent action is needed to promote healthy diets among children and young people.

The BMA says the use of taxation measures on unhealthy food and drink products has ‘consistently been found to have the potential to improve health, with relatively high taxation levels (in the region of 20%) needed to achieve positive health outcomes’.

It point to the experience of Mexico, where the introduction of a 10% tax on sugary drinks has resulted in a drop in consumption.

The report says that the long-term goal  would be to tax a wide range of products, but suggests the first step is to implement a duty  on sugar-sweetened beverages, which are classed as all non-alcoholic water based beverages with added sugar, including sugar-sweetened soft drinks, energy drinks, fruit drink, sports drinks and fruit-juice concentrates.

The BMA says such products are typically high in calories and low in essential vitamins and minerals, while the intake of added sugars by many children and adults in the UK far exceeds recommended levels, putting them at risk for a range of health conditions.

It also suggests that the money raised by increasing the price of sugary drinks with ‘empty calories’ could be used to promote consumption of healthier products, and may alleviate the regressive nature of food taxes and reduce diet-related disease.  If a tax of at least 20% is introduced, it could reduce the prevalence of obesity in the UK by around 180,000 people, the BMA calculates.

Given the low level of take-up of the government’s ‘five a day’ recommendation, the BMA report says ‘consideration should therefore be given to the introduction of fiscal measures to subsidise the sale of fruit and vegetables in the UK, which could be funded by the introduction of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.’

The BMA proposals follows on from the decision last month by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to introduce his own additional charge of 10p on all sweet drinks served to children in his Jamie’s Italian restaurants. The money raised will go to the going towards the charity Sustain, to support children’s healthy food initiatives across Britain, which is expected to benefit by £80,000 in the first year.

Explaining the move, Oliver said: ‘I’ve seen first-hand the heart-breaking effects that poor diet and too much sugar is having on our children’s health and futures. Young children are needing multiple teeth pulled out under general anaesthetic and one in three kids [is] now leaving primary school overweight or obese. Soft drinks are the biggest single source of sugar among school-age kids and teenagers and so we have to start here.’

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