Not so Sweet?

Slightly scary news that the average 10 year old in England has consumed all the sugar that their 18-year old self should have been allocated (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/02/average-10-year-old-18-years-worth-of-sugar-public-health-england). This over-consumption leads to many costly (to the individuals and the NHS) health issues including obesity, type 2 diabetes and multiple loss of teeth. Everyone seems to recognise that sugar consumption in children is too high but the big 'food' manufacturers seem to be very slow in their voluntary undertaking to reduce the sugar content of items aimed at children by 20% (they have only managed 2%). They seem to be worried about the threat to introduce a 'pudding tax', claiming that nobody has yet demonstrated that increasing the costs of harmful food leads to a reduction in average weight in children. In fairness establishing such a complex link, given the variables involved, would be difficult but threat of a tax might well focus their attention!