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Sugar tax cut daily intake of the sweet stuff by 5g among children and 11g in the UK, study shows READ MORE: Hated sugar tax worked for girls but not boys By Chris Pollard Published: 18:30 EDT, 9 July 2024 | Updated: 18:30 EDT, 9 July 2024 e-mail View comments The sugary drinks tax has significant reduced the amount of sugar people are eating and drinking, a study found. One year after the controversial levy increased the price of sweet drinks, children were consuming 4.8 grams less sugar per day, while adults had an intake that was 10.

9g lower. Most of this drop was due to less sugar from soft drinks – slashing 3g off children’s daily sugar and 5g off that of adults. However, people are still eating too much sugar overall, the researchers found, and are not meeting UK or World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.



Introduced in 2018, experts estimate the soft drinks sugar tax has reduced the number of under-18s having a tooth removed due to decay by 12 per cent (Stock Image) Sugar-sweetened drinks account for about 30 per cent of the added sugars in diets of children aged one to three and more than half for older teens (File Photo) The government introduced a two-tier sugar tax on soft drinks in April 2018 to protect children from excessive sugar consumption and tackle childhood obesity. It added 24p per litre to drinks with the highest sugar content and 18p per litre to those with a lower amount. Zero-sugar and 'diet' drinks were unaffected, as were unsweetened juices.

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