I can’t help but wonder what the world will be like when my daughter goes to school (in about 4-5 years)
The way we transport, shop, eat, and communicate is probably going to be totally different
But me being a nutritionist
And someone who is ‘in the trenches’ delivering education for patients newly diagnosed by their GP with Type 2 diabetes (2.7 million of us now have it in England and this is continuing to rise)
^^^ Which is heavily correlated with larger waistlines and excess fat
I’m conscious about what we’re doing to tackle this
Now, I’ve given my honest opinion about the sugar tax before over here
But today…I might just go one step further
Because by taxing sugary drinks
Are we creating a conflict?
As humans, we value our freedom, right?
And this was evident when chocolate milk was banned in certain schools
Yes, the children drank less during school
but then outside of school they just had more
^^^ Which is a bit like what happens when we ‘give up’ our favourite food for a 7 day detox….
Which begs the question:
Should we stop focussing on taking stuff away and focus more on what we CAN have?
Well, a recent study seems to think so
Showing that when changes in the prices were framed as a tax on ‘unhealthy’ foods, people ate MORE ‘unhealthy’ foods (referred to as sweets and pop)
Whereas when changes in prices were framed as a price discount for healthy foods, people wanted MORE ‘healthy’ food (like vegetables, lean meats, and salads)
And given that whoever does the grocery shopping is responsible for 72% of what everyone who lives in my household eats
This could help us make better-informed, more intelligent decisions about what we eat and what we feed our kids
And there’s more!
They also looked at what would happen if you asked a kid what their favourite superhero would eat and looked at the foods they then ate
And it turned out that most of the kids said ‘healthy’ types of foods
And of these kids, they then went on to choose healthier foods themselves (apple rings instead of chips)
What do you think about the sugar tax?
In fact, what do you think we should do full stop?
Hit reply and let me know!
Matt ‘wondering what Batman would eat’ Fruci
