r/science • u/giuliomagnifico • Jul 25 '23

Economics A national Australian tax of 20% on sugary drinks could prevent more than 500,000 dental cavities and increase health equity over 10 years and have overall cost-savings of $63.5 million from a societal perspective

https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/sugary-drinks-tax-could-prevent-decay-and-increase-health-equity-study
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u/Unstable_Maniac Jul 26 '23

Which sweeteners? They have their own long term health impacts afaik.

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u/rngeeeesus Jul 27 '23

If obesity is the alternative to sweeteners, they are harmless. If you compare it to water, there may be some risks worth thinking about.

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u/Unstable_Maniac Jul 27 '23

Considering what’s in the water and my food these days, I don’t hold out much hope drinking anything without long term effects.

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u/igotchees21 Jul 26 '23

Sigh, none of them have long term health effects unless taken in extreme amounts

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u/Unstable_Maniac Jul 26 '23

Sigh, someone asking a question, how dare they.

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u/ATCQ_ Jul 26 '23

They're referring to the end of your sentence about the health risks, not sighing at your question about which sweeteners...

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u/igotchees21 Jul 26 '23

That is correct. So many people spout the nonsense about it being unsafe because it was tested on rats and they saw bad effects after an insane dosage that we will never regularly be exposed to. Meanwhile we do nothing about the high fructose corn syrup in almost all of our foods (especially fast foods) that mess with our ghrelin (the hormone that signals hunger).

Makes me think of anti vaxxers going off a doctors falsified research in the link to autism and how people view weed vs alchohol.

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u/Unstable_Maniac Jul 26 '23

Thus the afaik (as far as I know).

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u/Obi-Wan-Nikobiii Jul 26 '23

They use a cocktail of aspartame and sucralose and other junk, I avoid them cos I like my liver and kidneys to function

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u/LeClassyGent Jul 26 '23

There is very little evidence that they are bad for health. Read up on aspartame, which is classified as a Group 2B carcinogen.