Doctors Lash Out at Australia’s “Scam” Sugar Reduction Plan

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has been hounding the government to come up with a coherent plan for reducing sugar consumption in the country, which suffers from rapidly increasing rates of obesity. According to a 2015 study, 28 percent of Australian adults are obese, and roughly two-thirds of all Australian adults are either overweight or obese.¹

A Commitment to Cut Sugar

As sugar taxes make their way to more and more European and African countries looking to stay the global obesity crisis, industry groups like the Australian Beverages Council have sought to preempt government regulation with fixes of their own. That’s exactly what’s happened in Australia: the government has accepted a pledge from the soft drink industry to reduce its use of sugar by 20 percent by 2025.

Doctors, however, have identified a problem: it’s a scam.²

For one thing, the companies are committing to reducing sugar on average across the industry portfolio, meaning that–in theory–they could simply up their production of bottled water in order to meet the percentage-based reduction. In fact, beverage companies could meet the mark without lowering sugar content at all.

But the issue cuts even deeper, according to AMA president Tony Bartone. “This is an attempt to try and perhaps muddy the waters in terms of creating a…diversion from the real issue,” he said. “A sugar tax will address this problem of trying to reduce the consumption, which is at the heart of the problem.” Indeed, the industry’s complicity in putting together the pledge seems to suggest that it is a low-cost, low-risk alternative to more dramatic steps by the Australian government.

For Australian doctors and health experts, a sugar tax would ideally be only the start of a more comprehensive assault on sugar consumption. A mandatory health star-rating system and restrictions on marketing to young children are part of their vision for a large-scale crackdown on the industry. Jane Martin, of the Obesity Policy Coalition, says that only a “raft of measures” like these would demonstrate that the Australian government was serious about taking on the public sugar crisis.³

“It’s a scam,” said global health expert Rob Moodie of the University of Melbourne. “We know that sales are dropping so they’d probably reach the [10 percent midway] 2020 target without changing the sugar content at all.”⁴

Regulation Versus “Government Support”

The government, however, which announced its full support for the plan, has rejected the skepticism of experts. Like many government representatives looking for an alternative to a politically controversial sugar tax, Health Minister Greg Hunt has tried to convince the public that the sugar industry is capable of regulating itself. According to Hunt, government support must be combined with the participation and “practice of industry.”

Such strategies are nothing new, and the industry has often either partnered with governments or preempted them in developing ways of staving off taxes. Kellogg developed a traffic light labeling system of its own before the British government had a chance to implement one, and even installed one of its own researchers at the British Food Standards Agency.

Time will tell whether or not the new Australian pledge will show results. Regardless, it stands as a good example of the delicate balance between direct government action and mediated government “support” for a change in the industry.

Dr. Rosmy Barrios, MD

This article has been medically reviewed by Dr. Rosmy Barrios, MD.

Dr. Rosmy Barrios, MD is an aesthetic medicine specialist whose work focuses on patients who are treated for obesity, metabolic syndrome, and other weight-related issues through nutritional analysis, keto diet programs, and supporting medications.

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Ryan Mernin

Ryan is a freelance writer and editor based in Philadelphia. He has edited books of Chinese philosophy, interviewed bands as a music journalist, and labored over satirical treatises in the candlelit hours of the early morning. He has also tended bar.

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