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Monday, 12 June 2006 10:46

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Doctors call for tax on soft drink sweetener

Doctors are set to call for taxes on the soft drinks industry in America to be increased in a bid to combat the country’s obesity epidemic.

Delegates at the American Medical Association’s annual conference will demand a levy on the sweeteners put in sugary drinks to pay for a massive public health education campaign.

They will also call for the amount of salt added to burgers and processed foods to be halved.

Sales of soft drinks in US schools have declined ahead of new rules allowing only healthier low-calorie drinks to be sold to students.

But delegates at the Chicago conference want the measures to go further by raising taxes on high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener used in a range of foods from ketchup to cola.

Some U.S. cities and states already levy taxes on soft drinks or junk foods that raise £500million a year, said Michael Jacobsen, director of the Centre for Science and the Public Interest, an independent health watchdog. But earmarking tax revenue for programmes promoting better diet would be a first, he added.

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