After having my Gall Bladder removed last year and ignoring the ,somewhat, low key instructions from the surgeon about my diet I found my weight had crept up and I was just unhealthy . My Doctor instructed me to lose two stones and at Xmas I embarked on a low ( no) fat diet. At that point we also decided to get away from the easy to eat sweet shit that seems to fall into your trolley when shopping .....
I have used sweeteners for years , with no apparent side effects ,and don't use sugar in the house but we were eating far too much of it.
Black coffee and tea, no cakes or deserts when out , chocolate reduced to an occasional good quality 70% + dark square .
I can honestly say that we don't miss it at all and with my wife being type 2 diabetic there are no sickly sugary drinks in the house either.
The manufacturers are entirely to blame for the amount of sugar in food and drinks shamelessly altering the nations sweet tooth to sell more rubbish . I could never understand why artificial sweetners were not substituted or offered as an alternative to the mainstream product but the reason is sugar sells and lots of sugar sells more .
I'm not sure if the new tax will change the nations habits , perhaps over time ,but in the short term kiddy power and dumb adults will grumble ,call it a stealth tax ,and continue to consume sugary ,syrupy shit .
It takes a long time to change a fat ,lazy nations eating habits .......