Episode 101: Sugar taxes

It’s been a while. Thank you for sticking with us while we’ve been gone.

Dozens of countries have started taxing sugary drinks over the last couple of decades. You can see the reasoning: if they cost companies more to make, then companies will pass that cost on to consumers, who will buy less, and hopefully get less fat and then die less often of diabetes and heart disease.

But does that actually work? We had a look at the studies behind it.

This podcast is sponsored by Works in Progress magazine. Find endless fascinating pieces on human progress at worksinprogress.co.

Show notes

* Germany’s planned tiered sugar levy — the announcement (and a bit more detail on the €0.26/€0.32-per-litre thresholds)

* The WHO’s Global report on the use of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, 2025

* The World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database, the source for the “100+ jurisdictions” figure

* Chris Snowdon / IEA’s case against sugar taxes: the classic Sugar Taxes: A Briefing and, more recently, The bitter truth about the sugar tax in The Critic

* Andreyeva et al.’s 2022 meta-analysis in JAMA Network Open.

* Scarborough et al.’s 2020 PLOS Medicine paper on UK reformulation.

* The UK Government’s November 2025 Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy consultation