Jamie Oliver, Sustain and Leon join forces to take action on sugary sweetened drinks and fund childrens food initiatives.

Jamie Oliver and Sustain have launched a petition calling on the UK government to urgently introduce a sugary drinks tax. If over 100,000 people sign the petition then the Government must consider debating the issue in parliament.The petition can be found here - childrenshealthfund.org.uk

Doctors, dentists, dietitians and many other public health experts support a tax of just 7p per regular-sized can (20p per litre) of soft drink with added sugar. This could generate £1 billion per year which Jamie and Sustain believe should be ring-fenced to support much needed preventative work around childhood obesity and diet-related disease, and improving the environment they grow up in [1].  

Jamie Oliver commented: “I’ve spoken to some of the brightest people in the medical world over the last few years and they all agree that action is urgently needed if we don’t want the NHS to crumble completely because of the costs of diet-related disease like type-2 diabetes.  One doctor recently told me that diet-related disease is one of the defining crises of our time.  We need the government to step up.”

Following the launch of his documentary Sugar Rush, Jamie and Sustain have also set up a Children’s Health Fund. The aim of the fund is to get restaurants and cafes to volunteer to put a 10p levy on their soft drinks with added sugar. The funds raised from the levy in participating restaurants will go to children’s health and food education initiatives. Jamie’s UK restaurants now all carry the levy, including his 41 strong group, Jamie’s Italian. Naturally fast food chain Leon, which began with a mission to bring good food to the high street, has already signed up, and other restaurants are in final discussions.

John Vincent, Leon co-founder and CEO, explained “Since we started Leon in 2004 we have been helping people eat a diet low in sugar. In that time, we’ve seen people and companies become even more addicted to the white stuff. It’s a human crisis as well as an economic one. I hope Leon is the first of many restaurants to join Jamie in adding a 10p levy to sugary drinks and create this positive change. We’re very interested to hear our customers’ views on whether this is the right way to do so.”

Sugary drinks are often high in calories but of limited nutritional value, and many health experts are increasingly concerned about their contribution to weight gain and type-2 diabetes [2]. Terrifyingly, one third of our kids now leave primary school overweight or obese. Tooth decay is the most common reason that children aged five to nine are admitted to hospital - 26,000 a year for multiple extractions under anaesthetic - and type-2 diabetes is costing the NHS around £9 billion a year [3].  

Ben Reynolds, Sustain, added “We want everyone to sign this petition to get Government to take action and introduce this duty on sugary drinks. In the meantime while they are dithering, we are really excited that the restaurant sector is taking the lead, showing that it can be done, and we are pleased to be helping them to set up the Children’s Health Fund to make sure that the money raised will make a difference to children across the UK.”

For more details speak to:

peter.berry@jamieoliver.com  (Jamie Oliver press team),
Ben Reynolds 07939 202711 ben@sustainweb.org (Sustain)
rachael@leonrestaurants.co.uk (Leon)

The government petition can be found at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106651
For more information on the Children’s Health Fund see www.childrenshealthfund.org.uk

Notes

1.    British Medical Assocation http://bma.org.uk/foodforthought
British Dental Association https://www.bda.org/news-centre/latest-news-articles/sugar-tax-a-%E2%80%98no-brainer%E2%80%99-says-bda
British Dietetics Association https://www.bda.uk.com/news/view?id=43&x%5B0%5D=news/list
Faculty of Public Health  http://www.fph.org.uk/uploads/Position%20statement%20-%20SSBs.pdf
2.    a) Malik V, Schulze M & Hu F. (2006) Intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain: a systematic review. Am J Clin Nutr. 84(2): 274–288.
Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210834/
b)  SACN. 2015. SACN Carbohydrates and Health report.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sacn-carbohydrates-and-health-report
3.    a) HSCIC. 2014. National Child Measurement Programme - England, 2013-14 [NS] http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB16070/nati-chil-meas-prog-eng-2013-2014-rep.pdf
b)  RCS, Faculty of Dental Surgery (2015) The state of children's oral health in England. https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/fds/policy/documents/fds-report-on-the-state-of-childrens-oral-health
c)  Hex et al. (2012) Estimating the current and future costs of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in the UK, including direct health costs and indirect societal and productivity costs. Diabetic Medicine 29 (2): 855–862 Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-5491.2012.03698.x/abstract
4.    Studies show that the introduction of a 20p per litre tax could potentially raise around £1 billion a year, as well as having a significant impact on health in the UK, potentially reducing obesity levels by up to 200,000 people.
5.    Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. They represent around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level. www.sustainweb.org