Cheaper alcohol and sugary drinks fuelling rise in lifestyle diseases

The falling relative costs of alcohol and sugary drinks are fuelling a rise in diseases, alcoholism, and injuries worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Poorly designed taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and sugary drinks – intended to raise prices and reduce consumption – are failing to keep pace with inflation and income growth, particularly in the developing world, according to a series of WHO reports released today.

“Health taxes are not a silver bullet, and they’re not simple. They can be politically unpopular and they attract opposition from powerful industries with deep pockets and a lot to lose, but many countries have shown that when they’re done right, they’re a powerful tool for health,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Tuesday. 

So-called “sin taxes” have been highly effective in reducing rates of obesity, lung cancer, and alcohol-related injuries in countries that enforce them. They work by increasing prices to change people’s habits, easing pressure on health systems overwhelmed by non-communicable diseases.

At the same time, the consumption of junk food has soared around the world in the last few decades. 

Some 25 years on from Eric Schlosser’s ‘Fast Food Nation’ – which helped expose the dark side of the fast-food industry – ultra-processed foods have continued to boom.

In the US alone, McDonalds sales have doubled since the turn of the century, ultra-processed foods make up more than 60 per cent of the average Western diet, and 43 per cent of people globally are now overweight. 

“We know that alcohol is an unhealthy product, we know that tobacco is an unhealthy product and we know that sugar is an unhealthy product. Taxes should not be seen as a burden, they should be seen as a prevention measure [against disease and death],” Anne-Marie Perucic, an economist at the WHO said.