Jamie Oliver is one of the best known faces of current gastronomy.Responsible for several television programs on the subject, the English chef is also a defender of healthy eating, especially in children.
In this context, the chef has advocated for years for the establishment in the United Kingdom of a tax on sugary drinks, whose collection is destined to improve food education.
The English Parliament presented on Thursday the budget for this year and next, which includes the establishment of a tax such as the one for Oliver, who expressed his joy in social networks in the first instance.
"We did it! A sugar tax in sweetened drinks, a deep movement that will have repercussions worldwide. Businesses cannot be brought to children's health," the chef said on Twitter and Instagram.
The tax, an aspect in which the United Kingdom is one of the few countries that have implemented it together with Mexico, France, Denmark and some US cities, will be implemented within a maximum period of two years, according to British Minister of British Economy George Osborne.
It is estimated that these taxes increase the cost and reduce sales, especially from the lowest income sectors, where obesity affects a greater number.
According to Osborne, the new tax will have two bands, one for drinks with 5 grams of sugar for one hundred milliliters and one, higher, for those with more than 8 grams per hundred milliliters, and will be introduced within two years forThe sector has time to adapt, if you wish, changing your formulas.
The minister argued in the House of Commons that "obesity brings diseases (...) and costs the economy € 35,000 million a year" and one of its causes, he said, are sugary drinks.
The tax, which is expected to raise 520 million pounds (€ 662 million) per year -which will be allocated to sport in schools -will not apply to natural fruit juices or milk -based drinks, he saidThe Foreign Minister of the Exchequer.
The tax will not only affect drinks such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but also others such as energizers or even tonic water.
This places sugar at the same level as alcohol and tobacco for English government, a position that has been held by defenders of healthy eating such as Jamie Oliver.
Since 2006, Oliver has carried out several campaigns and has directly requested from the Government to apply a stricter policy about food for children and young people, mainly in English schools.
An example of this was his television series Jamie School Dinners, in which he was traveling through schools that served healthy dishes to his students instead of the typical junk food, which generated a public debate in his country and changed the types of foods thatThey are served in educational institutions.
The chef opened in several British and Australian cities what he calls "food ministries", centers in which healthy eating is also promoted.
Among its main arguments is the impact that the sugar of drinks such as those that have been taxed has in the cause of chronic diseases such as diabetes or as a risk factor of obsessity.
The problem of these drinks is that they provide the consumer for a large amount of sugar without being accompanied by nutritional benefits or without generating satiety.
In any case, those who criticized the cook have not been missing for also presenting recipes that include high sugar content, in addition to some aimed at children.
Source: The Observer and EFE