First US sugar tax sees soft drink sales fall by almost 10%, study shows

The first sugar tax to be introduced on soft drinks in the United States to fight obesity has cut sales by nearly 10% and apparently increased the numbers of people buying water instead, a study has shown.

Berkeley, California, introduced a substantial tax on sugar-sweetened beverages on 1 March 2015. At the rate of 10% – or one penny per fluid ounce – it adds 12 cents to a 12 ounce can of soda priced at $ 1, or 68 cents to a two litre bottle costing just over $ 2 before the tax.

Experts hope that sugar taxes will hike the prices of unhealthy drinks and reduce the number of people who consume large quantities of them. Sugar-sweetened drinks are known to be a significant contributor to obesity, particularly in children and young people.

But taxes have only been introduced after battles with the industry. The latest tax to be introduced – in Philadelphia, in January, where unlike Berkeley incomes are low and obesity rates high – is still being challenged in the courts.

Berkeley is unlike most cities in America, with far higher levels of wealth and education and low consumption of colas and other sugary drinks. Yet Barry Popkin of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA and Lynn Silver from the Public Health Institute found that, even there, the tax had changed people’s behaviour.

“This surprised me,” Popkin told the Guardian. “I didn’t think we’d get much effect at all.” The debate around obesity and the sugar tax had already brought consumption down in Berkeley – and yet the introduction of the tax appears to have brought it down further.

One year after the introduction of the tax, their paper in the journal Plos Medicine shows that sales of sugary drinks in Berkeley fell by 9.6%, while sales in surrounding areas with no tax rose by 6.9%.

While the academics cannot prove that consumers bought water instead, bottled water sales in Berkeley increased by 15.6% after the introduction of the tax. Sales of other non-taxed drinks such as unsweetened teas, milk and fruit juices also rose. But diet drinks and energy drinks appeared not to be so popular – those declined by 9.2%.

Shopkeepers did not lose out because the average grocery bill remained the same. The authors of the study suggest it is possible that consumers are shifting away from sugary drinks to healthier ones – and without causing undue economic hardship because spending did not drop.

In the first year, the tax was levied only in the chain supermarkets and chain petrol stations, so there is still scope for a bigger effect when independent and small shops also bring it in. The money raised is going to child health programmes.

Popkin expects the impact of the tax to be far greater in Philadelphia, where it has been set higher, at 15%, and where incomes are some of the lowest in the USA and consumption of sugary drinks and obesity are high. Proceeds from the tax are going to pay for much needed daycare centres for children. “That was how they sold it,” said Popkin. “The revenue has been double what they expected. Daycare centres have doubled and tripled in size.”

The battle for sugar taxes has not yet been won in the USA, he said. “The industry is still fighting tooth and nail. We have reached a turning point, but the industry is still fighting. They are fighting desperately in Philadelphia because it is a low-income and very high-purchasing city. The implications are quite profound.”

The American Heart Association praised study and the sugar tax.

Its CEO, Nancy Brown said: “This study adds to the compelling evidence that simply cannot be ignored. The residents of Berkeley, who voted for a sugary drink tax in their community, are now seeing the benefits of significantly reduced consumption of sugary drinks, significantly increased consumption of water and consumers are switching to healthier drinks.

“Additionally, Berkeley small businesses have not seen a drop in overall sales. This positive impact is magnified by the fact that the revenue from the tax is being invested in health and wellness across the city.”

But the American Beverage Association said: “This study acknowledges that taxes do not demonstrate a meaningful reduction in obesity rates. A beverage tax that increases the price on certain beverages by more than 50 percent only yields a reduction of 6.4 calories per day.

“America’s beverage companies know we must play a role in improving public health, which is why we are taking aggressive actions to help people reduce the sugar and calories they get from beverages.”

First US sugar tax sees soft drink sales fall by almost 10%, study shows

No evidence sugar-free soft drinks aid weight loss – study

Soft drinks made with artificial sweeteners, such as diet colas, do not help people lose weight and may be as big a part of the obesity problem as the full-sugar versions, academics have said.

A paper by researchers at Imperial College London and two universities in Brazil contends that artificially sweetened beverages, often called diet drinks, are just as big a problem as those containing sugar. There is no evidence they help people lose weight, they say, possibly because people assume they can eat more because their drinks are low in sugar.

The report says the combined factors of what goes into artificially sweetened drinks, how they are consumed, and their environmental impact mean that “far from helping to solve the global obesity crisis [they are] a potential risk factor for highly prevalent chronic diseases”.

Sugar-sweetened drinks, including sports beverages, have been identified as one of the major causes of obesity. Many countries, including Mexico and France, have introduced sugar taxes to try to reduce consumption, and the UK plans to do so next year.

Many manufacturers are looking to boost sales of drinks containing artificial sweeteners in order to escape the levy. Such products already account for 25% of the global soft drinks market.

Prof Christopher Millett, senior investigator at Imperial’s School of Public Health, said: “A common perception, which may be influenced by industry marketing, is that because ‘diet’ drinks have no sugar they must be healthier and aid weight loss when used as a substitute for full-sugar versions. However, we found no solid evidence to support this.”

The paper, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, is a commentary on the research done so far into artificially sweetened beverages promoted as healthier alternatives and the impact on weight.

It says the evidence does not suggest they help with weight loss, although they probably do not cause people to put on weight. Some studies show no weight loss; others show a small loss, but those studies were not always well done and were often funded by the soft drinks industry, the authors say.

Maria Carolina Borges, the first author of the study, from the Federal University of Pelotas, in Brazil, said: “The lack of solid evidence on the health effects of ASBs [artificially sweetened beverages] and the potential influence of bias from industry-funded studies should be taken seriously when discussing whether ASBs are adequate alternatives to SSBs [sugar-sweetened beverages].”

The paper argues that “given their negligible nutritional benefits and potential detrimental health impacts”, the environmental impact of manufacturing artificially sweetened drinks should be taken into account. It takes 150-300 litres of water to make one litre of drink, it says, and there is considerable solid waste and cumulative chemical pollution.

Prof Carlos Monteiro, a co-author, from the University of São Paulo, said: “Taxes and regulation on SSBs and not ASBs will ultimately promote the consumption of diet drinks rather than plain water, the desirable source of hydration for everyone.”

The British Soft Drinks Association dismissed the paper. Its director general, Gavin Partington, said: “Contrary to the claims made in this article, scientific research shows that low-calorie sweeteners, such as those found in diet drinks, help consumers manage their weight as part of a calorie-controlled diet.

“At a time when we are trying to encourage people to reduce their overall calorie intake it is extremely unhelpful that products that contain no sugar, let alone calories, are demonised without evidence.”

He added: “It’s worth bearing in mind that the UK soft drinks sector is the only category in which sugar is consistently falling year on year – over 17% since 2012.”

Global beverage companies have been investing in soft drinks, flavoured water, juices and ready-to-drink tea and coffee containing artificial sweeteners in response to the obesity crisis and the outcry over sugar. The World Health Organisation has said sugar should not be more than 10% of people’s energy intake, and preferably lower than 5%.

On Tuesday the supermarket chain Sainsbury’s announced a 13% cut in the sugar content of its own-brand cereals.

The government has asked food manufacturers to reduce the sugar content of their products by 5% by the end of this year. Sainsbury’s said it had also removed all illustrated characters from its cereal boxes as part of a commitment to responsible marketing to children.

No evidence sugar-free soft drinks aid weight loss – study

Most countries get more calories from alcohol than soft drinks – study

People in the UK and many other countries get more of their calories from alcohol than from sugary drinks like cola and lemonade, according to new data which suggests that tackling Britain’s drink problem may be more important for health than cracking down on sugar consumption.

Of 24 countries tracked by the data analysts Euromonitor International, all but one have higher daily calorie consumption from alcoholic drinks than sugary beverages. In the UK, adults are consuming more than 106 calories per head every day from alcoholic drinks, compared with 98 from sugar-sweetened drinks.

The highest calorie intake from alcohol is in South Korea, with nearly 168 calories a person each day and only 44 calories from sugary drinks. Also high are Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland and Germany while – of the countries examined – only the people of Taiwan get more calories from sweet drinks than alcohol. The US was not included.

Calories from sugar and alcohol

Sugar has been targeted by health experts and obesity campaigners. A number of governments are introducing taxes on sugar-sweetened drinks which are recognised as a major cause of childhood obesity.

But little has been said or done about alcohol, which the new data suggests is more significant even than sugary drinks in obesity in adults. Most people are unaware that alcohol can make you gain weight, because – unlike food – the number of calories are not routinely marked on beer cans and bottles of wines and spirits. Yet a large glass of 13% wine contains 228 calories and a standard glass 160 calories. A pint of 4% beer is also around 160 calories.

“In the UK, alcoholic drinks above 1.2% ABV are currently exempt from having to provide calorie information. This research demonstrates clearly that this exemption should now end,” said Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the alcohol health alliance.

“The public have the right to know what is in their drinks, so they can make informed choices about their consumption. These labels should make the public aware, for example, that a pint of standard-strength beer contains around 180 calories, about the same as a packet of crisps, and that a large glass of red wine contains around 200 calories, roughly equivalent to the calories found in a doughnut.”

Euromonitor’s nutrition analyst, Sara Petersson, said this did not let sugar off the hook. “It is very interesting because the whole reason why soft drinks are under attack is because they are liquid calories. We don’t have a compensatory mechanism that says we should eat less after drinking them,” she said. “It works the same way with alcohol and if anything, not only does it have a worse health effect but it is an appetite stimulant which makes you eat more. That is not to take anything away from the need to reduce sugar. That is crucial because it is a very important source of weight gain.”

But, she said, tackling alcohol consumption was also crucial to combatting obesity, which can lead to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer, and was in danger of crippling health systems around the world.

Euromonitor’s nutrition data also shows that the average daily consumption of calories in the world is 1,398 calories, with the lowest amount in India at 761 calories per capita per day and the highest in Belgium at 2,559 calories per capita per day. It also shows that most of the developing countries it tracked (78%) get more calories from packaged food than fresh food.

Most countries get more calories from alcohol than soft drinks – study

Portugal to levy sugar tax on soft drinks in 2017

Portugal’s Socialist government will introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks in 2017 which is expected to raise €80m (£72m) for the public health service, a budget bill presented on Friday showed.

The announcement comes just three days after the World Health Organisation urged countries to start taxing sugary drinks, pointing to evidence that price rises can dramatically reduce consumption.

Under Portugal’s plans, drinks with more than 80 grammes of sugar per litre will be taxed at €16.46 per 100 litres.

Drinks with fewer than 80 grammes will pay a tax of €8.22 per 100 litres.

The tax would raise the price of a standard 330-millilitre can of Coca-Cola, which contains 35 grammes of sugar, by 5.5 euro cents.

The new tax would apply only to soft drinks. Sugary drinks based on milk or fruit juice would be spared.

The previous centre-right government, in power until November 2015, considered introducing a sugar tax on drinks and foods that contained too much sugar or salt, but dropped the idea.

Only a handful of other countries, such as France, Mexico and South Africa, have introduced a sugar tax.

The British prime minister, Theresa May, in August released proposals for such a tax as part of her Conservative government’s strategy to combat childhood obesity.

The Socialists came to power in Portugal last year after they teamed up with the Communists and the far-left Left Block to oust the centre-right administration.

The small leftist parties did not formally join the new government, but the prime minister, Antonio Costa, relies on them for a majority in parliament to pass legislation – an unprecedented political arrangement in 40 years of Portuguese democracy.

Portugal to levy sugar tax on soft drinks in 2017

"Soft touch" medical professionals ought to be disciplined for in excess of-prescribing antibiotics

‘Soft touch’ physicians must encounter disciplinary action for handing out too numerous antibiotics, the director of the overall health watchdog has stated, as he warned that pointless prescribing has now reached crisis level.

Professor Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at the National Institute for Overall health and Care Excellence (Good) mentioned millions of ‘frequent flyer’ sufferers have been turning into addicted to the thought of antibiotics, frequently touring surgeries and A&ampE wards right up until they received a prescription.

Nowadays Nice launches a new raft of recommendations telling medical professionals to delay remedy to see if signs clear up on their personal and quit giving medication for minor illnesses like sore throats and urinary tract infections.

Professor Baker said people who fail to adhere to the guidance ought to be brought before the Basic Healthcare Council. Although disciplinary action would most most likely lead to retraining, medical professionals who continued to willfully misprescribe antibiotics could encounter getting struck off the health care register. Prof Baker explained prescriptions ought to start off carrying diagnoses so that pharmacists could challenge doctors’ guidelines and so needless prescribing could be monitored.

“This is truly hazardous practice, and if essential, of program (they ought to be brought ahead of the GMC)” he mentioned.

“It’s entrenched in our society. There are folks who are addicted to the concept of getting antibiotics.

“If they know there’s a soft-touch doctor then they go to them. Usually they’ll go to their GP and then consider another a single, and then go on to an A&ampE department.”

Research has found that 9 out of 10 GPs really feel pressurised to prescribe antibiotics and virtually all (97 per cent) individuals who inquire for them get them, several for situations like colds and hayfever. Some resort to acquiring capsules above the web if they can’t get them from a medical professional.

Nationally 41.six million antibiotic prescriptions have been issued in 2013/14 at a price to the NHS of £192 million. But a quarter of them are probably to be inappropriate or unnecessary.

In 2013, Nice issued advice asking physicians to cease prescribing antibiotics for respiratory tract infections like colds or sore throats. It was supposed to bring down the number of prescriptions by 22 per cent, but the past two years prescriptions have actually risen by around 3 million every 12 months.

Antibiotics  Photograph: ALAMY

Prof Baker stated it is down to other bodies this kind of as Public Overall health England and NHS England to now translate the latest Nice advice into “resources that will result in actual action and a adjust in the degree of antibiotic prescribing”.

“If we don’t do it now then we’ll have to rethink the total basis of medicine since we’ve invested 60 many years assuming that most infections will be cured by antibiotic drugs,” he advised a briefing in central London. “If they no longer perform then we’ll have to rediscover and relearn how to treat infections surgically and I don’t think any individual needs to be in that position.”

Nevertheless doctors hit back at the suggestion they could face disciplinary action for handing out as well several medicines, claiming they had been under a huge sum of strain from patients.

“These can be quite tough and demanding conversations for GPs to have,” said Dr Tim Ballard, Vice Chair of the Royal College of GPs.

“We require a societal modify in attitudes in the direction of the use of antibiotics and any suggestion that hard pressed GPs – who are currently trying to do their jobs in more and more hard situations – will be reported to the regulator is counter-productive and unhelpful.

“If this have been to happen, we would be searching to the Basic Health-related Council to assistance any GP or other health specialist who finds themselves on the acquiring finish of complaints or criticism about selections created more than the prescribing of antibiotics.”

The GMC explained that sanctions had been presently in spot to stop physicians wrongly prescribing medicines but was unable to confirm that anybody had ever faced disciplinary action for above prescribing antibiotics.

“Doctors can, and do, face sanctions for misprescribing, though the law dictates that every case has to be regarded as on its merits to establish whether the doctor’s actions pose a danger to individuals or self-confidence in physicians,” mentioned Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the Common Health-related Council.

The Nice guideline suggests that GPs and other overall health experts go over the harms and benefits of taking antibiotics with individuals, and make clear why prescribing an antimicrobial may possibly not be the ideal alternative for them.

Next yr the watchdog intends to concern guidance for members of the public.

Antibiotics have been the mainstay of treating infections for far more than 60 years but despite the fact that a new infectious condition has been discovered practically every 12 months above the past thirty many years, no new antibiotics have come to market for 15 years.

The chief healthcare officer Dame Sally Davies has warned that antibiotic resistance as huge a chance to Britain as terrorism.

Dr Tessa Lewis, a GP and vice chair of the Guideline Advancement Group, said: “The far more we use antibiotics, the significantly less successful they turn out to be. Infections can evolve and turn into resistant to existing medicines.

“Resistance to antibiotics is growing and there have been really handful of new antibiotics produced in latest years, so we require to make confident that as well as searching for new antimicrobial medicines, we use the ones we presently have in the most successful way.”

A Division of Well being spokesperson stated that the overuse of antibiotics effects was the duty of sufferers, physicians, dentists and vets, not just GPs.

“In purchase to make positive we have successful antibiotics for generations to come, we are raising global awareness of the dangers of resistance to antibiotics and offering equipment for GPs to help prescribing choices,” extra a spokesman.

"Soft touch" medical professionals ought to be disciplined for in excess of-prescribing antibiotics

Restrict sugar consumption to equivalent of a single can of soft drink a day, say advisers

Bottles and cans of soft drinks in a supermarket. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

The guideline level of dietary sugar should be slashed by half to the equivalent of one particular can of fizzy drink a day, according to scientists who advise the government.

Men and women ought to get no more than five% of their daily calories from so-known as “totally free sugar”, a term that includes table sugar, the sugar added to foods and drinks, and that discovered naturally in fruit juices, syrups and honey, they said.

The advice, to be regarded by the Division of Wellness soon after a 3-month consultation, sets an upper restrict on free of charge sugar of around 25g or six teaspoons a day for a wholesome woman, and all around 35g or 7 teaspoons for a guy.

Across all ages, individuals in England consume far more than the current guideline of ten% of calories as sugar, with adolescents consuming far a lot more. On regular, adults get around 12% of their everyday energy from sugar, and for adolescents the figure rises to more than 15%.

Scientists raised particular concerns about sugary drinks and urged folks to minimise the sum they consumed, in which achievable swapping to more healthy alternatives such as water or minimal-body fat milk. Below the proposed guideline, a single can of fizzy drink would contain adequate sugar on its very own to meet an adult’s every day sugar limit.

The recommendation follows a 6-year review by the government’s scientific advisory committee on nutrition (SACN) of analysis into the well being results of carbohydrates, which contain sugar. The report identified that a higher sugar consumption was associated with tooth decay and fat obtain in children and adults. Getting obese puts people at higher chance of type two diabetes, cardiovascular illness and some kinds of cancer.

“By reducing to five% you decrease the chance of all those items to what, from a scientific point of view, would be acceptable. “The challenge is to get there,” mentioned Ian Macdonald, chair of SACN’s carbohydrate operating group. “You have to decrease the consumption of all foods with free of charge sugars, not just one particular sort. It is possible without it getting a uninteresting second world war rationing diet plan.”

The proposed five% restrict mirrors draft guidelines published by the World Overall health Organisation in March.

According to the report, individuals need to get half their daily energy from carbohydrates – frequently starchy meals, this kind of as potatoes and rice. It goes on to advocate high-fibre diet programs, with the guideline level for dietary fibre increasing to 30g for adults. Higher-fibre diet programs look to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, variety-two diabetes and bowel cancer. The report does not recommend changing the well-established tips to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables.

To coincide with the SACN report, Public Health England (PHE) launched its own paper on how to assist individuals lessen their sugar intake. It said it would reconsider its guidance on fruit juice and smoothies in its 5-a-day campaign.

Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at PHE, mentioned: “One particular purpose we’re worried about sugar is obesity. We have a tendency to think of obesity as currently being a cosmetic dilemma, as only to do with individuals photographs we see in the media of grossly obese people, but it’s not. Currently being a small bit obese, currently being somewhat podgy, is raising your risk of serious diseases which includes variety-two diabetes, which will have potent devastating results on you and your loved ones. Also it raises the danger of cardiovascular condition and some cancers.’

She said PHE would look across the board at ways to lessen the public’s sugar consumption, from the possible introduction of a sugar tax to tackling marketing to young children.

But shifting the nation’s eating habits will be a formidable job. Two-thirds of adults in the Uk are overweight or obese, as are one in 5 youngsters at reception age and one in 3 main college-leavers. Youngsters from poorer backgrounds are practically twice as very likely to be overweight or obese as these from an affluent area.

In accordance to Tedstone, sugary drinks are responsible for 30% of children’s sugar consumption, producing them the single biggest source. There is some evidence that sugary drinks inspire in excess of-consumption, due to the fact they do not fill men and women up in the exact same way as other meals, she said.

“Our information show that adolescents are on common having a can of fizzy drink each single day, and that is part and parcel of the reason why they are exceeding their sugar recommendations . It is definitely an location for households and folks to consider about.”

Catherine Collins, principal dietitian at St George’s hospital NHS trust mentioned: “Unless of course you are an elite athlete, sugary soft drinks genuinely have no area in your diet regime. They contribute unnecessary calories to day-to-day intake, and for all age groups, but specifically in the younger, they contribute to tooth decay – unless of course of course you currently wear dentures.”

Restrict sugar consumption to equivalent of a single can of soft drink a day, say advisers

Soft drinks targeted by new government overall health campaign

The soft drinks sector complained the campiagn demonstrates their items in a ‘deliberately negative’ light. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

Families are becoming urged to ditch sugary drinks and reduce down on saturated fat in the most recent advertising blitz by England’s public overall health watchdog.

Public Wellness England explained a household of 4 could lessen their sugar intake by three-quarters of a 1kg bag of sugar in just one month by swapping fizzy drinks for more healthy choices.

Shifting total milk for semi-skimmed milk could mean the average household cutting down their fat intake by a third of a pint above 4 weeks, the group stated.

The advertising campaign, Intelligent Swaps, is in search of to capitalise on the hundreds of thousands of Britons who get started the new yr with well being-conscious resolutions right after the festive period.

“Swapping like-for-like foods in our diet program could assist cut out surprising levels of saturated fat, sugar and eventually calories without having having to give up the types of foods we like,” stated Professor Kevin Fenton, director of wellness and wellbeing at Public Well being England.

He added: “We all eat also considerably saturated fat and sugar, which can increase our calorie intake. Together this increases our threat of weight problems, cardiovascular ailment, diabetes and some cancers.”

Families will be supplied vouchers to inspire them to keep away from sugary cereals and swap butter and specific cheeses for reduced-unwanted fat alternatives.

However, the move brought a backlash from the soft drinks market. The British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA) claimed its merchandise had been getting proven in a misleading and “deliberately damaging” way.

Gavin Partington, director basic of the BSDA, explained: “It is particularly frustrating for an industry which has been working with the Division of Wellness to encourage healthier behaviours, reformulate merchandise so they are reduced in calories, make offered smaller pack sizes and target more of its advertising investment on minimal- and no-calorie choices.”

He took situation with the depiction in the adverts of a two-litre bottle of pop, claimed to have the equivalent of 52 sugar cubes.

“It is also disappointing to see our merchandise depicted by the campaign in such a deliberately negative way,” he explained. “That two-litre bottle proven in the ad is not meant to be consumed by an person, surely not by a single little one. This kind of an excessive depiction of the consumption of soft drinks undermines the essential message of the campaign, namely that it really is quite easy to make a wise swap to a no-calorie, diet regime soft drink.”

The Children’s Food Campaign welcomed the initiative but stated it would be undermined unless supermarkets produced more healthy foods more affordable and easier to uncover in merchants. The body also mentioned that vouchers presented as portion of the Public Overall health England scheme might not be more affordable than buying very own-brand healthy food items.

In a separate examine released on Thursday, Cancer Analysis Uk said tripling the tax on cigarettes would lower smoking by a third and avert 200m premature deaths by the finish of this century.

The charity known as on governments across the globe to increase tax on tobacco, a move it explained would motivate smokers to quit and help quit young men and women taking up the habit.

Harpal Kumar, Cancer Investigation UK’s chief executive, explained: “Worldwide, around half a billion youngsters and adults underneath the age of 35 are presently – or quickly will be – smokers, and a lot of will be hooked on tobacco for daily life. So there’s an urgent require for governments to locate methods to cease folks starting up and to aid smokers give up.

“This immensely critical review demonstrates that tobacco taxes are a hugely strong lever, and potentially a triple win: minimizing the numbers of folks who smoke and who die from their addiction, lowering the healthcare burden and fees associated with smoking and yet, at the very same time, escalating government revenue.”

Meanwhile the cost of joining a fitness center this yr is continuing to rise, according to a Labour survey of 95 regional authorities.

Virtually two-thirds of council-run fitness centres have enhanced the price of yearly membership in the last three years, some by up to £100, the survey located. A yearly gymnasium pass now costs £368 on typical, an increase of £15 considering that 2010, according to the study.

Luciana Berger MP, the shadow public overall health minister, mentioned there was a desperate need to have to make leisure amenities reasonably priced for all. “Millions of folks across the country will want to kickstart 2014 by acquiring fitter and more active. There is a genuine risk nonetheless that several individuals will be place off from maintaining to their new year’s resolutions by soaring gymnasium charges and David Cameron’s failure to tackle the cost-of-residing crisis.”

Soft drinks targeted by new government overall health campaign