WHO urges governments increase taxes on soft drinks

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on Tuesday for governments to increase the tax on sugary drinks to combat the problem of obesity in the world, where one adult in three is overweight.

WHO claims that this measure could reduce the consumption of these products and therefore save lives.

In a new report, the UN agency says there is overwhelming evidence that new taxes on sugary drinks such as soda, "would proportionally reduce their consumption."

A 20% increase in prices of this type of beverage would a reduction in the consumption of the order of 20% and an increase of 50% would reduce consumption by half, according to the WHO.

"If governments impose taxes on products such as sugary drinks can reduce suffering and save lives," said Douglas Bettcher, head of the WHO's prevention department for communicable diseases.

Globally, the number of obesity has doubled since 1980. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults - people 18 years or more - were overweight, and of them more than 600 million were obese.

In 2015, 42 million children under 5 years were overweight or obese.

At the same time, the number of adults suffering from diabetes has, in 35 years, from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014, according to a first WHO global report published in April.

In 2012, diabetes killed 1.5 million people in the world, it is necessary to add 2.2 million deaths due to diseases related to diabetes, 3.7 million deaths.

The new study is the result of a meeting last year between fiscal experts who asked WHO to study how tax policies can reduce the rate of diabetes.

In Mexico, which in 2014 imposed a tax on soft drinks which caused an increase of 10% price, consumption fell 6%.

"Fiscal policies should aim to foods and beverages for which alternatives exist," says the text.

WHO assesses long that sugar should be less than 10% of the daily energy consumption of a person, and now calls on countries to reduce this rate to 5%.

This is 25 grams or the equivalent of six tablespoons sugar coffee per day.

A can of soda is 10 teaspoons of sugar coffee.

The new report also states that subsidies for fruit and vegetables to reduce their prices between 10 and 30% would also be effective in improving eating habits.