Staff Reporter
ISLAAMABAD: A media session on “Policy Options to Reduce Consumption of Sweetened Beverages” was organized by Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH). PANAH’s General Secretary Sana Ullah Ghumman chaired and hosted the event.
On this occasion, Global Health Advocacy Incubator Consultant Munawar Hussain, Dr. Khawaja Masood Ahmed, National Coordinator Nutrition, civil society and media experts were also present.
Mr. Sana mentioned the health services provided by PANAH in Pakistan and said that PANAH is not only provided awareness related to heart and other fatal diseases on the other side also work in collaboration with law and policy makers to formulate laws and policies for human safety. Heart and other fatal diseases are mostly caused by use of excessive use of sugary drinks which result in causing a lot of health problems and our today session is to talk about options available for reducing use of Sugary drinks. We should drink water instead of sweet drinks, clean and sweet water is best for health because of the PANAH awareness and noble work for society people are getting awareness.
Munawar Hussain, a consultant at Global Health Advocacy Incubators, said there is ample global and local evidence to support increasing taxes on sugary drinks and reducing their consumption. In 2015, the cost of obesity in Pakistan was estimated at 428 billion rupees. We need to introduce a school food policy and ban the marketing of sugary drinks so that children can be protected from their harm and also use taxation as tool. Our policy makers should work on this tools to reduce the consumption of sugar sweeten beverages which will be a Win-Win situation for Pakistan.
Dr. Khawaja Masood Ahmed, National Coordinator Nutrition said that consumption of SSB become a national threat and will cause a public health emergency in Pakistan. Other speakers said that the number of diabetics has increased from 19.4 million in 2019 to 33 million in 2021.Other representatives from different organization also share their opinion on the issue. This will have a serious impact on our economy and no country can treat such a large number of people, the government should take all possible steps to tackle the diabetes emergency in Pakistan, we fully support increasing the tax on all types of sugary drinks.