Why increasing the price of sugary drinks could be good for us all

Increasing the price of sugary drinks in restaurants and using traffic light labelling can help reduce consumption, a study suggests.
Sugary drinksSugary drinks
Sugary drinks

A number of measures appear to be effective in cutting intake of sugary drinks, according to a new Cochrane review of available evidence.

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has been linked to weight gain and increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, and is one area being targeted by governments to tackle obesity.

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The review included 58 international studies, involving more than one million participants, which examined ways to reduce consumption of sugary drinks.

The researchers, from the UK and Germany, found evidence to support a number of interventions.

These included introducing easy-to-understand labels, such as traffic light labels, to show how healthy a drink is.

Traffic light labelling is currently optional on food and drinks in the UK but there have been calls to make it mandatory after Britain's departure from the EU.