Sugary beverage taxes to lower obesity Analysis

1. Luisa Fernanda Delgadillo F.
Sugary beverage taxes to lower obesity Analysis
The document from the official resolution to implement the IEPS tax, to sugar beverages
shows how ​current high consumption of beverages with added sugar contributes significantly
to excess energy intake and is an important factor in the development of overweight and
obesity in Mexico, which represents an image of the public policies that favor the reduction in
the consumption of beverages with added sugar. Some of ​the arguments found in the article
in the Official diary are that public policies need to favor the reduction of the sugar beverages
consumption with law enforcements through taxes. Also that o​verweight and obesity represent
a public health problem of great magnitude in Mexico and it is essential to have a State
policy to achieve changes in the eating patterns and physical activity of Mexican society.
Some of the inconsistencies found in the document are that the state policies only
ads a minimum extra tax to the sugar beverages, instead of penalizing the product in some
places where the obesity and overweight are causing major problems, specially to children.
Therefore, when the document refers to how to make protection, promotion and prevention
actions a priority axis for health improvement but only tax with the IEPS, through the
establishment at the producer and importer level of a specific quota of 1 peso per liter to
flavored beverages instead of informing the people about the risk and preventive actions
they can make states a half argument, with inconsistencies and fallacies.
The conclusions from the arguments are that the government is implementing tax rises
for extra added sugar beverages to lower its consumption in order to ​reduce the mortality of
chronic noncommunicable diseases, mainly diabetes and hypertension, and implement

2. actions for the prevention and control of overweight, obesity and diabetes, but not really
informing the society about the prevention tips and health risk if they get caught in this
extreme consumption. Apparently the ​point of view of the document is derived from research
but it does not contain strong facts or statics that shows that obesity and overweight in Mexico
is only caused by the consumption of sugary beverages and not by the overall unhealthy eating
patterns of the society per se. In order to ​avoiding dispersion in this document I tried to organize
the ideas and arguments shown in order to segment by topics and being able to find
inconsistencies or not complete information.
The overall information given in the document shows the ​benefits of the new IEPS tax for
the beverages and how it can contribute in the health issues related to overweight and obesity
that the society is facing, making it to the top rankings in this area worldwide. Nevertheless, the
arguments described are not complete enough or based on numbers to justify the
implementation of the new tax policies, which makes them inconsistent.
References:
Asociación nacional de productores de refrescos Ac ​ANPRAC. ​ 9 de diciembre de 2013.
Retrived from:​ ​http://anprac.org.mx/boletines/