Cheaper sugar-sweetened beverages ‘may pose a public health risk’

Global efforts to tackle obesity may be undermined by the growing affordability of unhealthy sugar-sweetened drinks.

This is according to a new study from the American Cancer Society, which analysed the prices of sugar-sweetened beverages in real terms and relative to income in 40 high-income and 42 low and middle-income countries around the world between from 1990 to 2016.

Using market leader Coca-Cola as a barometer, it was found that sugar-sweetened beverages became more affordable in 79 of 82 countries between 1990 and 2016, usually due to a combination of increased income and decreases in price.

Real prices dropped in 56 of the 82 countries, meaning that a person in 2016 could buy 71 percent more sugar-sweetened beverages with the same share of their income than in 1990. This percentage rose to 89 percent in developing nations.

The researchers said the current trends "will inevitably drive increased consumption of such products and will certainly hamper global efforts to address the overweight and obesity epidemic".

As such, they recommended increased taxation be introduced for these products, as has been the case for other unhealthy products such as cigarettes.

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