With dentists "fed up" at seeing rotten teeth day in, day out and Kiwis' consistently high rates of obesity, the pressure on the Government to find solutions is becoming more urgent.
New research from University of Otago, Wellington has once again taken aim at sugary drinks and the impact that taxing them might have on New Zealanders health.
Led by Dr Andrea Teng, the team of researchers combined evidence from cities and countries where sugary drinks' taxes have been applied to evaluate their effectiveness.
"[There is] compelling evidence that sugary drink taxes result in decreased sales, purchasing or dietary intake of taxed beverages. For a 10 per cent tax, sugary drink volumes declined by an average of 10 per cent," Teng said.
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New research has once again taken aim at sugary drinks and the positive impact that taxing them might have on New Zealanders health.
The studies covered four cities in the US and Catalonia in Spain as well as country-wide taxes in Chile, France and Mexico.
Co-author Dr Amanda Jones said all the individual studies found a reduction in sugary drink consumption, but the impact in some settings was greater than others.
Applying tax by thresholds of sugar content, rather than as a percentage of price, appeared to be important for determining a more favourable impact, she said.
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO
Lead author Dr Andrea Teng says the research takes a new approach in combining multiple studies examining the real-world impact of sugary drink taxes on sales, purchases and dietary intake.
The World Health Organisation recommends governments impose a 20 per cent tax on sugary drinks.
Despite that, Teng said successive governments appeared to have had little interest in introducing sugary drink taxes, but she was hopeful that would change.
"It is probably inevitable that this type of tax, which is highly targeted at protecting child health, will need to be seriously considered by New Zealand politicians."
The call for change comes just weeks after the release of a new global study exploring the most effective ways to help people consume fewer sweet drinks.
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A sugar tax has channeled millions of dollars to underprivileged kids and cut soft drink consumption in parts of the US. Should New Zealand follow suit?
More than one million people, including adults and children, across the globe took part in the Cochrane Review, which aimed to establish whether action taken so far had been successful in helping people to drink fewer sweet drinks.
They found that price hikes could help decrease the sales of sugary drinks in supermarkets and restaurants – as did subsidies and promotion of healthier drinks.
However, Dr Eric Crampton, the chief economist at The New Zealand Initiative, expressed concern with the researchers' low "certainty of the evidence".
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British chef Jamie Oliver recorded a clip, on the day of an Auckland symposium targeting sugary drinks encouraging people to fight for a sugar tax in New Zealand, which he says could be used for education in schools.
The study identified measures such as healthier vending machines in workplaces and schools, as well as urban planning restrictions on new fast-food outlets.
"Rather than providing evidence for policy change, we should view the report as suggesting measures potentially worth trialling within an appropriate experimental framework designed to improve the evidence base," Crampton said.
Earlier this year, it was reported that The Ministry of Health was looking into a sugar tax but the Government – namely Health Minister David Clark – had ruled it out for the time being.
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO
All the individual studies in the review found a reduction in sugary drink consumption, but the impact in some settings was greater than others, co-author Dr Amanda Jones said.
