Nursery World - MPs back sugar tax to fight obesity

A 20 per cent tax on sugary drinks should be brought in to help fight childhood obesity, MPs say.

With one in 20 Reception class children overweight or obese and a quarter of disadvantaged children obese by the time they leave primary school, the cross-party health committee is calling for ‘bold and urgent action’.

Deprived primary school children are also twice as likely to be obese than their more affluent peers.

Many of the committee's recommendations - set out in a report today - including the call for a 20 per cent tax on sugary drinks, focus on cutting sugar, reflecting evidence presented by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition that sugar has a significant impact on obesity, and that children are consuming nearly three times the recommended maximum intake.

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