- 2 February 2016
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ลำดับตอนที่ #20 : The country where people are dying for a sugary drink
The Mexicans dying for a fizzy drink
Silvia Segura lives
in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Merida, in Mexico's Yucatan state.
She invites us into her modest house. Three armchairs face a television and a
ghetto-blaster
turned up high with Mexican music blaring out.
On the walls are hooks
with hammocks
hanging from them. These are where the family sleeps - they are more
comfortable than beds in the region's baking climate.
In the living room,
however, a double bed stands in the middle of the floor. Silvia says this was
her mother's bed after she became too ill to climb into a hammock. She died
recently because of complications caused by type 2 diabetes - but until the
end, Silvia says, her appetite for sugary drinks never left her.
"All
my family drinks Coca-Cola," says Silvia. "My mother, may she rest in
peace, was a true cocacolera - she couldn't live
without it, she'd drink it three times a day if she could. She said it kept her
alive."
When her mother went
into hospital, "we'd smuggle
the coke in and give her some sips," Silvia says.
And this, says the
government and the health campaigners, is a serious problem.
All too often, the
headlines coming from Mexico focus on the country's bloody drugs war - which
has claimed over
100,000 lives in the past decade. Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand, kills
70,000 per year.
So acute is the problem that
two years ago, in January 2014, Mexico introduced a national tax on sugary
drinks and junk food - a 10% tax on every litre of sugar-sweetened drinks and
an 8% tax on high-calorie food.
The effect of these
on children is a particular concern - according to Mexico's Health Ministry,
the country leads the world in childhood obesity.
"About 10% of
kids are being fed soda from zero to six months of age," says Dr Salvador
Villalpando, a childhood obesity specialist at the Federico Gomez children's
hospital in Mexico City.
"By the time
they reach two it's about 80%."
The problem is aggravated by the fact
that children are often short, their development sometimes hindered both physically
and mentally by a diet high in junk food and low in nutrients.
Although the
country's appetite for sugary drinks has sometimes been put down to the lack of clean water in some
parts of the country, Villalpando disagrees.
"It's
cultural," he says.
"Mexican mums
like having chubby kids in their homes as it shows they're feeding them
properly. And they are so used to feeding them sodas, they don't stop even when
there is clean water."
The children coming
to his clinic often show early signs of diabetes - patches of dark skin on their necks and
regular spikes in
their blood sugar levels. Children with pre-diabetes cannot process sugar in
the same way as healthy children and after consuming sugary food or drink their
blood sugar rises dramatically.
Young children who
are accompanied by their mothers have less chance of getting better than
teenagers who come alone, Villalpando says. That's because parents continue
overfeeding the young children, while often the older ones are determined to
lose weight and improve their health.
According
to research by Mexico's National Institute of Public Health, together with the
University of North Carolina, in the first year the tax reduced consumption of
sugary drinks by
an average of 6% over the 12 months, reaching 12% by the month of December.
In the poorest
households, monthly purchases of sweet drinks fell by a full 17%.
The drinks industry disputes these figures,
however.
"We did an
analysis with the National Institute of Statistics and Geography and what we
have, until June 2015, is that consumption and sales have been affected by 1%
or 2%," says Jorge Terrazas of Mexico's bottled drinks industry body,
Anprac.
He adds that fizzy drinks only account
for 5.6% of Mexico's average calorie consumption so can only be a small part of
the solution to obesity and diabetes.
No data has yet been
published that would indicate whether the tax is having an effect on Mexicans'
health. But Dr Miguel Messmacher, under-secretary of revenues at Mexico's Ministry of Finance,
says he is in no doubt that it is working.
"We've raised
close to 20bn pesos (£760m)," he says. "It's a fairly significant
amount. I think the results we have so far have led to the changes in behaviour
we wanted."
So what do the big US
brands make of Mexico's approach?
Hank Cardello of the
Obesity Solutions Initiative, an industry-funded lobby group in Washington DC,
cracks open a can of diet ginger ale and tells us.
"You have to look
at ways of expanding
the tool kit of
solutions," he says.
"The typical
regulatory tool kit is tax, ban, limit, constrain - those kinds of anti-growth words, if
you would. They're anathema
to what the companies have to do.
"We should ban
the word 'should'. It's like a parent talking to a child. 'You should eat
better, you should do this.'
"No. When
broccoli tastes like a cheeseburger, I'll eat more broccoli. You don't lecture
to people to get them to change."
But in Berkeley, a
short drive from San Francisco, Josh Daniels sees things very differently.
He was the co-chair
of the "Yes on Measure D" campaign, which resulted in an overwhelming
vote in favour of introducing a soda tax in November 2014 - the first in the
US.
The tax is one cent
per ounce, which amounts to about 10% of the value of a bottle of soda, just as
in Mexico. It raises about $150,000 per month for health-focused community
initiatives.
"I came to
understand the damage that sugary drinks have been doing," says Josh.
"By showing that Mexico did it and was successful, it gave support to our
position that this was a viable
policy."
Now the city is
leading the way for other US cities, he says, 31 of which have already tried
and failed to introduce a tax, but may try again.
The idea of a sugar
tax has also been floated in the UK.
In October a report
by Public Health England recommended a tax of between 10% and 20% on high-sugar
products as one measure needed to achieve a "meaningful" reduction in
sugar consumption. Food Standards Scotland also proposed a sugar tax two weeks
ago.
"I don't really
want to put new taxes on to anything but we do have to recognise that we face
potentially in Britain something of an obesity crisis," Prime Minister
David Cameron said last month, promising to announced details of a "fully worked-up
programme" to tackle
obesity later in the year.
In Mexico, the tax
may be working but sometimes it can be hard to see how.
Across the country,
corner shops are painted red and white, reminding Mexicans where their
loyalties lie.
Posters tempt school
children with cheap offers of fizzy drinks and sugary snacks on their way to
school. It makes you wonder whether Mexico's thirst for pop can ever be truly quenched.
obesity.
Obese (adj.)
extremely fat in a way that is dangerous for health:
ghetto blaster(n.)
a large, long radio or music player that can be carried around by hand
blare (v.)
to make an unpleasantly loud noise:
hammocks (n.)
a type of bed used especially outside, consisting of a net or long piece of strong cloth that you tie between two trees or poles so that it swings (= moves sideways through the air)
bake (v.)
smuggle (v.)
to take things or people to or from a place secretly and often illegally:
imperial (adj.)
belonging or relating to
an empire or the person or countrythat
rules it:
claimed (v.)
to say that something is true or is a fact, although you
cannot prove it and other people might not believe it:
acute (adj.)
If a bad situation is acute, it causes severe problems or damage:
An acute pain or illness is one that quickly becomes very severe:
aggravated (v.)
to make a bad situation worse:
hindered (v.)
to limit the ability of
someone to do something, or to limit the development of something:
put down (n.)
an unkind remark that makes someone seem silly:
patches (n.)
a small area that is different in some way from the area that surrounds it
spikes (n.)
a narrow, thin shape with a sharp point at one end, or something,
disputes (n.)
an argument or disagreement,
especially an official one
between, for example, workers and employers or two countries with a common border:
fizzy (adj.)
having a lot of bubbles:
revenues (n.)
the income that a government or company receivesregularly:
approach (v.)
to come near or nearer to something or someone in space, time,
quality, or amount:
to deal with something
ale (n.)
any of various types of beer, usually one that is dark and bitter:
expand (v.)
to increase in size, number, or importance, or to make something increase in this way:
kit (n.)
a set of things, such as tools or clothes, used for a particular purpose or activity
a set of parts sold ready to be put together:
the particular clothing worn by a sports team,
or the particular clothing and small pieces of equipment wornand
used by people such as soldiers and sailors
constrain (v.)
to control and limit something:
anathema (n.)
something that is strongly disliked or disapproved of:
viable (adj.)
able to work as intended or able to succeed:
able to continue to exist as or develop into a living being:
Promising (adj.)
Something that is promising shows signs that it is going to be successful or enjoyable:
Tackle (v.)
to try to deal with something or someone:
quench (v.)
to drink liquid so that you stop being thirsty:When it's hot,
it's best to quench your thirst
to use water to put out a fire:
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