Article content continued

If the CDA had done a bit of homework they would have noticed that soda consumption in Canada has already decreased drastically. Over the past 12 years soft drink consumption is down by 30 per cent. In its place, we’re drinking lower calorie alternatives. And this trend is manifesting itself throughout North America without resorting to government action.

At best, sugar is a contributing factor to a contributing factor.

Yet Dr. Jan Hux, chief science officer for the diabetes association, is going around the country arguing that people who imbibe too much soda have a 25 per cent higher risk of developing diabetes without understanding that these consumers are the ones least swayed by higher taxes.

The CDA further argues that countries such as Mexico have changed consumer behaviour with their 2014, 10 per cent soda tax, as people drink more water and milk. But a recent study by RIWI, a technology survey company, has found otherwise. Not only have Mexicans not changed their drinking habits, especially among the poor, about 65 per cent are against fighting obesity with taxes. Here the average Mexican is right because nowhere in the world can it be shown that taxes have lowered rates of obesity or diabetes.

Complicating the picture further is the mystery of lower sugar consumption and rising weight. In the U.K., sugar consumption fell 16 per cent on a per capita basis from 1992. And between 1980 and 2003, obesity levels increased threefold in Australia while the consumption of refined sucrose fell 23 per cent. The same is happening in Canada. According to Stats Canada, consumption of added sugars in Canada has been declining over the past 20 years, mainly reflecting a decline in caloric soft drink consumption.