Here in the United States it is clear there is a national health crisis lead by obesity and diabetes. Unfortunately this obesity crisis is not just here in USA it is a growing health crisis in many countries around the world. The difference is other countries are fighting back. Here in the US there are battling sides of how to best address the issue. Unfortunately, most of these techniques are centered on self-awareness and individual choices, which is great that's why we live in the land of the free. However, I argue we need to attack this at the heart of the health crisis....poor diet. Specifically decrease the amount of processed foods or maybe decrease the desire to produce these processed foods. Now that I have you prepped check out this article in NPR:https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/04/27/605870954/britain-s-new-sugar-tax-hits-scotland-s-favorite-oh-so-sweet-soft-drink

As I hinted the US is not along in this struggle to improve its nation's health. Obesity in the U.K. has increased in similar ways over the past 20 years but their government is pushing back. The U.K. has passed a new sugar tax that is similar to Mexico, France, and Norway: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43659124this article will highlight the details of the new sugar tax law. This is a tax that forces manufacturers to pay at an increased rate for sugary drinks that have more than 8g sugar/100ml compared to those that have 5-8g sugar/100ml. Currently pure fruit juices and milk based drinks are exempt from this tax. 

As a result manufactures have started reducing the amount of sugar they put into their products to avoid the increased tax rates. I can only hope more taxes are coming to continue to drive down the prevalence of these foods. I think this is a step in the right direction. Think about how much easier it could be to kick the sugar habit if there were no longer candy bars at every store you went in.