According to the 2023 Annual Report of the National Program for the Promotion of Healthy Eating (PNPAS) of the Directorate-General of Health (DGS), released today, there was "a 36% decrease in the proportion of beverages classified in the highest tax bracket (sugar content equal to or greater than 8 g/100 mL), between 2017 and 2023". "More recently, between 2019 and 2023, there was a 54% increase in beverages that fall into the lowest bracket (sugar content less than 2.5 g/100 mL), thus suggesting that the soft drinks currently most consumed by the Portuguese have a significantly lower sugar content", emphasizes the DGS. To obtain this data, the health authority monitored the impact of the special excise tax on beverages with added sugar or sweeteners in 2023, having analyzed the data from the Tax and Customs Authority regarding the percentage distribution of these beverages according to sugar content in the first seven years of application of the tax (2017-2023). For the director of the PNPAS, Maria João Gregório, the fact that there are currently fewer soft drinks with eight or more grams of sugar per 100 milliliters may be due to "two distinct factors". "On the one hand, the industry is reformulating its beverages and, therefore, reducing their sugar content", and, on the other hand, consumers may be opting for beverages with a lower sugar content, the nutritionist told the Lusa agency. Maria João Gregório stressed that this reduction in the average sugar content of these beverages demonstrates that this public health measure (special tax) "has been a strong incentive" for these results. The DGS adds that the most recent data (2023) "reinforces that the most significant impact of this measure is related to the incentive to reformulate the sugar content of these beverages". Regarding the evolution of the sales volume of these beverages, according to data from the Tax and Customs Authority, there was a 17% decrease in sales volume in the period 2017-2020. Between 2020 and 2023, there was a 25% increase in sales volume, with this value slightly exceeding the 2017 value in 2023 (+3%), the data adds. The program also assessed the data from monitoring compliance with the restrictions on food advertising aimed at children under 16, imposed by Law no. 30/2019 of April 23, which also suggests that this measure is having the capacity to restrict children's exposure to food advertising.  According to the data, food advertising in the vicinity of schools shows the absence of advertisements for unhealthy food products within a 100-meter radius of school premises, as determined by law. "However, when advertisements for food were assessed in a wider perimeter (500 meters from school premises), it was possible to identify a relevant set of advertisements for unhealthy foods", the report highlights. The most recent data for 2022 from the COSI Portugal study, a child nutrition surveillance system integrated into a study by the World Health Organization/Europe, show a prevalence of 31.9% of overweight and 13.5% of obesity in children aged 6 to 8, which represents an increase of 2.2 and 1.6 percentage points, respectively, compared to 2019. These values contradict the downward trend observed between 2008 and 2019 for overweight, and confirm the growing trend of childhood obesity already observed in 2019. The study points to a decrease in the consumption of sugary drinks, with a frequency of up to 3 times per week, compared to 2019. Read Also: Drinking soft drinks is a good solution to end nausea? (Portuguese version)