How taxing sugary drinks in Canada is increasing weight stigma

Newfoundland and Labrador made history in September as the first Canadian province to introduce a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages also exist outside of Canada, including Mexico, Philadelphia, Penn. and the UK. In Newfoundland and Labrador the tax is 20 cents per liter of sugar-sweetened beverage.

Taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages is supported by many global and national health organizations such as the World Health Organization, Diabetes Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Taxes are a popular public health policy because of the links between sugary drink consumption and type 2 diabetes and weight gain.

Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are excise taxes or flat taxes, which also make them regressive taxes. This type of taxation has real potential to have detrimental effects on equity, as lower-income populations will pay a higher proportion of their income through this tax. Previous criticisms of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages also include the potential harm to small businesses and Indigenous communities.

weight stigma

Notably absent from this list of harms is the potential for taxing sugar-sweetened beverages to create or aggravate stigma, including weight stigma. Weight stigma in public health has attracted global attention and there are many calls to action to end weight stigma.

Stigma occurs in part when a label – like “obesity” – is associated with negative stereotypes, leading to discrimination and loss of status. Weight stigma includes stereotypes of laziness and stupidity. This can lead to discrimination in healthcare and in the workplace.

Weight stigma has negative impacts on mental and physical health, including avoidance of health care, eating disorders, self-exclusion from sport and exercise, and stress. Contrary to what many people think, stigma is not an effective weight loss strategy.

Even before Newfoundland and Labrador declared its intentions to tax sugar-sweetened beverages, the keen interest in Canada and worldwide prompted us to investigate the cessation and acceptability of a tax in our province of Manitoba. We conducted an interview-based study with residents from many different locations, including a middle- to upper-class liberal neighborhood in the provincial capital of Winnipeg.

Our participants from this location were white, food secure, and most importantly, highly educated. In our analysis, we specifically looked for cases of weight stigmatization in the interview transcripts.

stigmatizing messages

We were interested in the participants’ language because people absorb the messages they hear and the images they see. You can push back, change, or repeat these messages.

In our analysis of the interviews, we found that many participants repeated messages stigmatizing weight when discussing sugar-sweetened beverages. More obviously, this was done by the judgment of heavier people who bought or consumed sugar-sweetened beverages.

Weight stigma also occurred in more covert or subtle ways. For example, some participants talked about their “disgust” and other negative emotions associated with their weight and the weight of others. Many participants also spoke of their “responsibility” to lose weight or to protect their children from obesity by avoiding sugar-sweetened drinks and juices.

Weight dissatisfaction is harmful to health. Disgust also has public health implications. Being disgusted by someone makes them seem less than human. It can help blame people for conditions caused by multiple biological and social factors and can reinforce prejudice.

Participants also described heavier people as a “burden” on the healthcare system and that a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks would help offset these perceived costs. While this myth that obesity is ruining the healthcare system is rife, research suggests otherwise. In Manitoba, it was found that utilization of health services for those classified as overweight was similar to that for those classified as normal weight. Health care utilization was only slightly higher among those classified as obese.

politics and stigma

Hearing these comments repeatedly in our interviews, we realized just how pervasive and pervasive the weight stigmatism was in participants’ attitudes towards sugar-sweetened beverages. Most importantly, these beliefs influenced support or acceptance of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages.

This result reflects existing research, which points to mutual processes between stigmatization on an inter- and intrapersonal level and politics. This indicates that interpersonal stigma can help create stigma policies, and that stigma policies, in turn, can legitimize and aggravate existing stigma.

Our specific research population was chosen because it was well representative of the dominant social group in Canada – a white, middle- to upper-class, highly educated segment of the population. This dominant demographic is also likely to be similar to many policy makers, further supporting this group’s prospects within Canadian politics.

Our results show how weight-stigmatizing comments were used to support taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages. Weight stigma has serious health consequences. As Canadian health professionals work to address weight stigma in public health policies, we need to reconsider our support for those policies.

This article was republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.