“Health care is not only about examining and treating patients, but more importantly, it is to limit diseases.”
Preventing disease was one of the main points of General Secretary To Lam’s speech on Vietnamese Doctors’ Day on 27 February this year.
He went on to say: “Protecting, caring for and improving people's health is not only the task of the health sector but also the responsibility of each citizen, the entire political system and the whole society.”
We could not agree more, in particular with the General Secretary’s holistic view of disease prevention. For him, as for the World Health Organization, looking after people’s health includes not just medical check-ups and treatment, but also nutrition, physical exercise, hygiene, clean water, fresh air, and more – all of the things that we all need to maintain good health.
One of the key factors influencing health is the availability, price and quality of the food, drink and other products we consume.
Sometimes, we only find out some time after a particular product has been on the market that it is harmful, and requires Government action to protect people from its harms.
For example, for decades, the tobacco industry told the world that smoking did no harm. Now that we know smoking leads to diseases and premature deaths to at least half of users who do not quit, we have more solutions to regulate and introduce tax tobacco to protect health and save lives.
When we know better, we can do better.
This is the case for sugary drinks too.
There is now strong evidence that people who regularly consume sugar-sweetened beverages face an increased risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Around the world, NCDs kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 3/4 of all deaths. In Viet Nam, NCDs are responsible for 80% of deaths. A substantial amount of these are premature – that is, people dying young, often when they are still of working age.
Drinking sugary drinks is also linked to weight gain and obesity in children and adults, which are major risk factors for many diseases, and especially unhealthy for children.
In Viet Nam, there has been a rapid rise in the consumption of sugary drinks over the past 15 years. In 2023, people here drank four times as many sugary drinks as in 2009. In 2023, on average, every person in Viet Nam drank nearly 70 litres of sugary drinks a year – or one and a third litres every week.
At the same time, Viet Nam’s prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults increased from 15.6% to 19.6% from 2015 to 2021. Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents, aged 5-19, more than doubled from 8.5% in 2010 to 19% in 2020. This is an alarming trend.
Despite the clear health risks of over-consumption of sugary drinks, the beverage industry is keen to see people drinking more and more of these beverages, so it can make more and more profit.
WHO believes it is time for the Government to tax them.
A tax would make these drinks more expensive, and thereby send a ‘price signal’ to consumers to drink less. This would be especially powerful in changing the habits of children and young people, who are more influenced by price. As a result, taxing sugary drinks would contribute to protecting health, building a healthier and stronger next generation.
Around the world, about 110 Governments now tax sugary drinks. Experience shows taxing unhealthy products is a win-win - a win for health and reduced health-care costs, and a win for Government revenue.
In some countries, we see the industry wanting to block or delay a tax, claiming that it would cause economic loss.
But evidence from other countries shows this is not true. In fact, consumers shift to other, healthier drinks. Smart manufacturers reformulate their products to match new demand for healthier, less sugary products.
Of course, a tax is no silver bullet. Along with a tax, we also need other measures – including more public awareness.
For example, not many people know that a single 330 ml can of a sweet fizzy drink can contain as much as 10 teaspoons or 40 grams of sugar.
A tax on sugary drinks and improving public awareness of a healthy diet – along with other measures to reduce risk factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption – are very much in line with Viet Nam’s aim to reduce the burden of NCDs.
They are also in harmony with the General Secretary's inspiring words about the importance of disease prevention and a healthy life, including healthy eating, and saying no to alcohol and cigarettes.
The National Assembly will consider the introduction of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, when it considers the Revised Special Consumption Tax Law this week.
The Revised Special Consumption Tax Law proposes introducing a modest tax of 10% on the factory price. This is just one quarter of WHO’s recommended 40%, but it is a positive first step – which will send a signal to both the industry and consumers, and provide a basis for future tax increases.
Without timely action to discourage it, consumption of sugary drinks will continue to rise sharply, along with the increasing harms for children, adolescents and adults, their families, society and the entire economy.
For all of these reasons, WHO urges decision makers to act now with support for a significant tax on sugary drinks to protect health of the current and future generations.
As the General Secretary said, “Health is the most precious capital of each citizen and of the whole society, the most important foundation for everyone's happiness and the development of the nation. Therefore, investing in protecting, caring for and improving the health of the people is an investment in the development of the country.”
