The issue of sugary drinks caused a great stir during the tenure of the outgoing government, this after the move led by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman to tax them. This week, a number of senior officials in the public health system sent a letter to Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu, in which they called for the reduction of the healthy food basket instead of the tax on beverages.
A senior official in the health system explains: Why will canceling the tax on sweet drinks cost human lives?
A study found: these are the damages that drinking diet drinks can cause you
Nadav Davidovich, director of the School of Public Health at Ben Gurion University and former chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians in Israel, spoke this morning (Thursday) with Ben Caspit Vinon Magal on their program on 103FM, and commented: “I want to debunk some myths. The issue of a tax on sugary drinks that is known all over the world, and all public health experts support it, requires a complementary measure of transporting a healthy food basket. They started working on it back when Litzman was Minister of Health.”
“The timing when the tax was passed colored it in political colors. We are working with ultra-Orthodox health professionals, they support this tax, we must remember that Israel unfortunately has a world record in diabetes,” noted Davidovich and added: “Today more than fifty percent of the population is overweight. In the area of diabetes We are gaining records. It should be said that it is not only ultra-Orthodox society, but also Arab society and in general obesity, which used to belong to rich people, has become something that mainly affects weak populations.”
He went on to explain his words: “Humans were not meant to eat such large amounts of sugar. In the past it was something that was lacking and therefore from an evolutionary point of view there is the pursuit of sugar and fat. But today we live in completely different conditions of excess.”
Davidovich once again emphasized the importance, in his view, of making healthy food accessible: “Healthy food should be made available cheaply. Vegetables and fruits used to be the cheapest in Israel, but today it has become very expensive. There are many market failures here, we need not only to impose a tax, we need to complete the other aspects, such as food labeling, and this should be done through dialogue.”