UNICEF warns that children’s environments are now flooded with ultra-processed food and sugary drinks, making healthy foods increasingly inaccessible. Unhealthy diets often have more to do with food environments than “individual choice,” Lazarus said. “What are the options, what’s available, do you even have the ability to purchase healthy foods?”
Nicholas Hodac, head of the European soft drinks lobby UNESDA, said taxes were an ineffective tactic for reducing obesity, while adding the industry had reduced the sugar content of its products since 2000.
Unhealthy Western diets are a scourge on global health. | Adam Vaughan/EPA
The WHO, however, recommends sugar taxes to limit consumption and promote healthy diets and says the evidence behind them is “robust.”
Footing the unhealthy bill
Unhealthy diets are not only a disaster for children’s long-term health, they’re also setting up societies for massive bills. UNICEF estimates the economic cost of obesity and overweight will surpass $4 trillion by 2035.
Europe made significant progress in reducing mortality from NCDs in the 1990s and 2000s but that trend is slowing down, researchers have warned. One suggested explanation is that governments took money out of health after the 2008 economic crash as budgets tightened, with knock-on effects for mortality now becoming clear.
Cuts to health spending are a false economy, however, according to the WHO. Research published last week by the global health agency found an outlay of $3 a person on chronic diseases could yield rewards of up to $1 trillion, mostly through a bigger and more productive workforce.