12/19/2018

Why sugar tax? What's next, salt tax?

Does sugar cause diabetes?

There are two main types of diabetes – Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
In Type 1 diabetes, the insulin producing cells in your pancreas are destroyed by your immune system. No amount of sugar in your diet – or anything in your lifestyle – has caused or can cause you to get Type 1 diabetes.
With Type 2 diabetes, though we know sugar doesn’t directly cause Type 2 diabetes, you are more likely to get it if you are overweight. You gain weight when you take in more calories than your body needs, and sugary foods and drinks contain a lot of calories.
And it's important to add that fatty foods and drinks are playing a part in our nation's expanding waistline.
So you can see if too much sugar is making you put on weight, then you are increasing your risk of getting Type 2 diabetes. But Type 2 diabetes is complex, and sugar is unlikely to be the only reason the condition develops.   Diabetes UK.

The above statements by Diabetes UK said it clearly. For Type 1 diabetes, sugar is not a cause of diabetes. Period. In the case of Type 2, sugar is only one of the indirect cause of diabetes. Fatty food, carbohydrates all add to the sugar level in the blood. Fat people are more likely or have a higher chance of getting diabetes. So don't blame sugar as the main culprit. Incidentally Type 1 is the more serious of the two types of diabetes as in this case the pancreas is not producing enough insulin.

The idea of a sugar tax was politely shot down by an Australian professor from Monash, saying that it was ineffective and at best with a small impact. There are many other factors that would lead to diabetes eg lack of exercise, genetics and stress. So if sugar should be taxed because it is one of the indirect causes of diabetes, what's next? Tax on carbohydrates, tax on people not exercising, tax on fatty food?

Why is sugar been identified as a factor to be taxed, and why is tax a solution? Funny reasons and funny solution? Is it all about money, about squeezing more money from the people? Is this another desperate move to raise tax because the govt needs money? And the govt needs your view on whether to tax you or not to tax you and the people are to commit themselves to being taxed?

What about people that need to take sugar, especially children that have an active life and need more sugar while they are growing and playing? Normal and healthy children would easily take care of their sugar intake without fearing diabetes. Personally I need a bit more sugar than usual to keep me buzzing. A lack of sugar will make me drowsy and slow. Sugar is important for people leading an active lifestyle. Sugar is energy. Why should people be penalised and taxed just for living actively? I also have to add salt to my drinks after active physical training. I get cramps when my salt level is low. Would salt be the next thing to be slated for higher taxes? High water tax not enough, sugar, salt also want to tax when these are the basic life necessities, basic building blocks for a healthy lifestyle?

No one is encouraging people to take excessive sugar. A simple solution would be to regulate the sugar content in drinks. Even this does not ensure people consume less sugar as one can drink more packs or bottles instead. But the effect will be there to the casual drinkers. A sugar tax does not directly lead to lower consumption of sugar nor lowering of diabetic cases but lead to more money to the govt coffer.

How many silly buggers would want to tell the govt, please tax me more for consuming more sugar to stop them from taking more sugar? 

Once tax is levied on sugar, many many food items would end up being taxed as sugar is a component of the food and leading to higher cost of living.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's very nauseous - the manner they go about trying to justify a sugar tax to tax us more . . .

Anonymous said...


hahaha........

come! come! come! please tax! please tax! please tax!

tax not enough?

how about BMI tax? how about BMI tax?

if above standard allowable BMI......tax them! tax them!

how about it? how about that?

think out of the box.........towards.....a SMART nation!

hahaha.................

Anonymous said...

8.37am, your joke not funny lar. It's a serious matter and u make fun out of it. Like the anon used to say, u need to be sodomized to come to your senses.๐Ÿ˜‚

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:37 may have a point. These very clever millionaires may really think of taxing fat people or people with big waistline. It is good for the people to be slim. It is good for you, you know. So caring.

Anonymous said...


hi 8.41am

dont be so serious leh

anyway...all the best to you!

hahaha........

Anonymous said...

Diabetes is never a disease.

Cause by stress.cannot be spread.

Al said...

Next tax by the Gobblemen will be Poo And Pee Tax. Why? Look at your pipes, behold you cud get Worms out of it possibly coming from your water or sewage pipes when u turn on (read the Worms found in water basin at AMK) ...beware the next excuse is the G want more taxes to 'clean' these pipes, a Poo And Pee taxes to maintain or upgrades the entire city pipes! A Anticontamination Taxes of all kinds coming on the way including the free air that you breathe in, cyberspace or cybersecurity taxes underway or e commerce taxes also in the pipeline..they r not called PAPies for no reason.

Chua Chin Leng่”ก้•‡้พ aka redbean said...

They claimed to have so many billions in reserves. Why so desperate to keep scheming more taxes on the people, including compulsory insurance schemes? How many more compulsory insurance schemes are they scheming?

Al said...

Rb, don't forget their motto 'What's wrong with collecting more monies?' & each time after erection they will 'huat ah' cos they knew that they going to make the drafts Sinkies pay n pay for everything !

Anonymous said...

Since we are a smart nation we must manage the tax smartly.
Sugar is very bad, ok tax @20%
Saturated fats based cooking oil LAGI worse, tax @27%
Carbohydrates including bread, WHITE RICE, noodle, pasta,even worse tax at 30%
Cigarettess tax 10,0000,000%. One pack of Marlborough will cost $178.99.
BROWN rice very good, zero tax
Olive oil very good, ZERO tax
All medications that help sick people, good, zero tax no GST.
What an utterly hypocritical insincere GOVT policy SUGARTAX! MY FOOT!
THE person who started this should come clean and resign, else be sacked.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. sugar is only one of the causes of Type 2 diabetes. We get more carbohydrates from eating rice and noodles than consuming sugar. This is no more than a scheme to squeeze more juice from the already dried out citizens.

Sugar tax will cause many things to increase in prices eg cakes, cookies, CNY goodies, soft drinks (which has already been getting pretty expensive and if sugar tax comes in, another round of increase will entail), etc. And the illogical part is that some drinks with less or no sugar now cost more than those with normal sugar. So, when sugar gets more expensive, more drinks will be made with less or no sugar, but will cost more. How is that possible?

I doubt the powers-that-be will care. And do not talk about the reserves that we, as citizens, are supposed to be kept in the dark for 'national security reasons'.

Anonymous said...

'national security reasons' - meaning if the truth is made known there would be turmoil ??

Anonymous said...

Hi all

What's wrong collecting more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

This is towards the vision of smart nation!

Correct?

Anonymous said...

Most angmohs are saying diabetes issue is complex, less sugar doesn't mean no diabetes; sugar tax may not work.

But for this War On Diabetes, PAPies are not listening to the chao angmohs. No Sir!!! For once, we are listening only to ourselves --- the True Blue Orang Asli of S'pore!!!!

And the True Blue Orang Asli in parliament & Istana all say sugar bad --- must tax!!!

Sinkies agree --- after all 70% voted for it mah!!

Akan Datang:-
1. Fat tax
2. Cholesterol tax
3. Salt tax
4. KFC tax
5. McDonalds tax
6. Body Mass Index tax
7. Hawker centre tax
8. Char kway teow tax
9. Pig trotters tax
10. Orh lua tax
11. Hokkien mee tax
12. Mee rebus tax
13. Roti prata tax
14. Murtabak tax
15. Instant noodles tax
16. Briyani tax
17. High blood pressure tax

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ copying the western welfare democracies:

In a cuntry with a public health system, The State can take over you life and decide what is good or bad for you.

This reason to tax more won't work. Not just because it's wrong on many levels, but type 1 has a large GENETIC component in the cause. These people will still be diabetic no matter what you do.

In an expensive Parliament with so many medical doctors, I'm surprised they haven't spoken TRUTH TO POWER.

Oh well, as usual, I'll just say FUCK THE GOVERNMENT.

Anonymous said...

It is really sickening (sick to the core) to continue to hear bullshitting by highly educated elites to justify illogical and irresponsible taxes and forced insurance scheming schemes.

Enough is enough! Period.

Anonymous said...


To prevent diabetes from becoming widespread just ban all the toxic soft drinks like Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola. all soft drinks with artificial sweeteners eg aspertame and lots of others. Also ban unhealthy food like burgers and fried chickens from many American companies. Lastly ban all medicinal syrups or liquid medicine which has artificial sweeteners.

Wise observation

Anonymous said...

@Matilar, @All,

The focus is on Type 2 Diabetes, not Type 1. DM1 (type 1 diabetes mellitus) is only a tiny fraction of the population as it is caused by a defective recessive gene. In fact for 3rd world DM1 sufferers, many die young & before they are able to procreate, as they cannot afford insulin jabs which are too expensive for them. i.e. they naturally die out.

DM2 on the other hand, is purely a lifestyle "you deserve it" disease, just like most heart attacks and strokes, & obesity.

If you are a responsible person who looks after your own health, you won't get DM2.

I have parents & relatives who are in their 90s, 80s ---- and ALL of them DON'T have the 3 High's --- hypertension, hyperlipidemia, high serum glucose.

Daily moderate exercise, reduced calorie intake, eat only 75% full, intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting means zero meals or just 1 small meal in 24 hours --- drinks like plain water & green tea is OK.

Those not used to intermittent fasting can maybe eat 1 or 2 meals consisting of fruits as a start. You still do your daily moderate exercise though --- no such excuse as fasting cannot sweat & pant.

I used to work in govt hospitals before I retired, and S'poreans suffering from DM2 has shot through the roof from the 1980s to the 2000s. Singapore used to be the No. 1 highest population with DM2 (as percentage of population) in the world during the 2000s --- now we are in the top 3 or 4.

And to be frank, most of those patients with DM2 & kena leg amputation, kidney dialysis, blindness, heart attack, stroke etc ---- I don't feel sorry for them. 99% even after patiently teaching them & advising them still prefer to enjoy life.

Until their life become fucked up then they expect everybody to help them, give them hospital discounts, expect to have free welfare, free housing, free monthly cheques from taxpayers, priority for kidney transplant, like we owe them a living.

Anonymous said...

Having done with vehicles, cigarettes and liquor, utilities, now the attention is focused on basic food commodities at the pretext of helping us to cut down on consumption.
They tax on cars, roads still jammed
They tax on cigarettes, even more people smoke especially the opposite sex.
This is a tax and revenue collecting govt.
How much more do they need to add to the reserves to save for a rainy day and when exactly do they define a rainy day?
Or more likely there isn't any left so need to start rebuilding again.
Now back to why they needed to have another puppet in Istana against widespread disquiet.

Anonymous said...

@All,

Artificial sweeteners like aspartame & acesulfame has clinically zero glucose, does not cause increase in blood sugar, does not cause blood sugar spikes, and has almost zero glycemic index.

So in terms of preventing DM2, it helps. That's why now Coke is no longer officially supplying Coke Classic in Spore --- only Light, Zero and Stevia versions. Shops are bringing in the Classic from M'sia i.e. parallel imports.

However, regular or large consumption of artificial sweeteners is also not recommended as it contains all sorts of chemicals that can disrupt body functions.

E.g. One can of Coke Zero contains no less than 0.2g of acesulfame potassium ---- pregnant woman, those breast feeding and small children should NOT consume anywhere close to 1g per day. Therefore drinking 5 cans will exceed the daily limits for these group of people.

E.g. Coke Light uses aspartame, which has been linked to many other health issues over the decades, particularly neurological problems from mild (headache) to moderate (ADHD) to serious (Alzheimers); also digestive and other gastrointestinal problems.

So far, the least problematic artificial sweetener is Stevia, whose active ingredient is actually from a plant. Coke Stevia uses this, but is more expensive. The main problem so far with Stevia is that large amount can cause blood pressure to drop --- you may think is good news for those with hypertension. But can be serious or even deadly for those on blood pressure medication.

In Oz & NZ, they have Coke Life which is combination of stevia and the original sucrose (or fructose corn syrup).

Anonymous said...

No-Exercise Tax

Next time they may tax those who don't exercise.

Must show them proof of how many hours per week you had exercised to avoid tax !

Anonymous said...

What about millionaires tax? Why keep thinking of taxing the poor and the unfortunates? Why make use od impractical methods to pretent to prevent diabetes?

If cigarettes and alcohol taxes have been proven to be ineffective to prevent or stop people from smoking and intoxicating themselves, how can it be possible for sugar tax to be effective to prevent diabetes? This is plain bogus solution, to con the less educated and naive.

I suspect (90% confidence) that the G is now bankrupt due to irresponsible spending and poor-judgement "investments" (gambling) by the Jinx and the Cancerous Brain.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ 602

Some artificial sweeteners do have an insulin response. Like sugar, they can decrease insulin sensitivity ie increase insulin resistance, which leads to metabolic syndrome (you’re getting FATTER even though you’ve substituted sugar with an artificial sweetener), which is a precursor to Type 2 diabetes.

We’ve evolved to seek out sugar, salt and fat as part of our survival mechanism, when those things were scarce in our natural environment. However thanks to social organisation and industrial production, sugar, salt and fat are ABUNDANT and cheap. Couple that with a sedentary lifestyle, and thus people in the developed world are putting on weight and getting all sorts of “rich people diseases” like diabetes, heart disease etc.

Looking at health data in populations present interesting phenomena. Fo eg.: There are growing numbers of oldies who exercise, get active and watch their food intake and quality. But in the young cohorts, these mottherfuckers are getting more obsese, less active (too much computer time) and have declining health stats.

Go figure: Oldies---”takut mati, jaga badan”. Youngsters---”YOLO, FOMO, die young, stay pretty”. That’ the human race for you ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜‚