The Chair of the Childhood Obesity Foundation is praising the BC government’s decision to add the “sugar tax” to soft drinks, but believes more could be done.

Doctor Tom Warshawski says the conversation that the announcement has sparked is more valuable than the actual tax increase. “I think taxes on sugary products are important, but it should be an excise tax that only the federal government can do. But, these types of discussions are really important because there’s a lot of marketing around drinking sugary drinks, in favour of it and kids are bombarded by it. Adults are as well. And you become sort of numb to the fact that you’re drinking sugar water.”

He says these beverages are having detrimental impacts on the health of our youth. “The highest consuming group are teenage males. And in Canada on average, they’re consuming between 400 and 600 ml per day of a sugary drink. Now this is an average meaning that there’s probably a third of kids that don’t drink at all, so those that drink the products are drinking are drinking a lot.” Warshawski says it only takes an extra 100 calories per day to gain one pound of fat per month.

Meanwhile, the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Director of Government and Health Relations for BC believes the 7% tax that will be added to soft drinks is a really positive move.

Jeff Sommers says you can just look a couple countries south to see the impact that a small tax increase can have. “The clearest example is in Mexico where the imposed taxes of one peso per ounce on sugary drinks. That was around a 10 % tax and they got up to a 12 % decrease in the consumption of pop among the general population.”