Send Cadbury’s to jail!

A great example of the extreme rhetoric from the Greens in Stuff:

Genter said research from Nelson Marlborough District Health Board principal dental officer Rob Beaglehole showed the cost of treating and individual case of tooth decay under anaesthetic ran close to $4000. 

“The proceeds from a sugar tax should be used to fund health awareness and promotion, there should also be restrictions on advertising and marketing and a ban on selling sugary drinks in particular in public buildings,” she said. 

“Ultimately the junk food industry is a culprit and we need to treat them like tobacco companies.” 

Yes chocolate and tobacco is just the same.

As the number of children hospitalised for tooth decay reaches new peaks, the Greens are renewing calls for the purveyors of sugary drinks to be treated like tobacco companies. 

That included restrictions on the advertising and sale of such drinks to children, and high rates of taxation. 

Ministry of Health figures show the rate of hospitalisation for dental caries, or basic tooth decay, in under 19-year-olds, had increased 13 per cent over the six years to June 30 2014. 

Yet the sales of sugary drinks has been consistently falling in NZ. So if tooth decay is increasing, and sugary drinks consumption is dropping, what does that mean?