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Should Lucozade be exempted from the sugar tax?

I think it should be exempt as it does work quickly i have been woken up in the middle of the night with a hypo and its easier to take lucozade than crunch through some gluco tabs.
 
Daibell said:
Hi. I accept that a hypo can occur at any time unexpectedly but the point I was making was about the quantity of glucose typically needed. Yes, with a serious hypo Lucozade may be a little faster than tablets and the best solution, but I still maintain that in many situations the tablets are OK as they do dissolve very fast and once in the stomach are just another form of glucose? Anyway each to their own solution and when you need a solution the cost is not important.
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My recommended treatment for a hypos is a carton (200ml) of orange juice. Which I'm sure is a better alternative I very much agree that if you need it you will have to pay for it but there are alternatives I use pinapple juice it works very well. Totally agree with your statement.

Minir edit by a mod to avoid confusion
 
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JohnEGreen said:
So Lucozade has 21.8g of sugar per 250ml and original coca cola has 26.5g of sugar per 250ml you could equally use either for a hypo but would need less cola than lucozade for the required amount of sugar
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Also a 200ml carton of pinapple juice has around 23g of sugar plus it is naturally occurring sugar and not refined sugar so better for you all round I use it all the time it works well and tastes nicer than sugary pop. Totally agree with you JohnEGreen nothing should be exempt.
 
Most defiantly should not be exempt. Yes I do use Lucozade to treat my hypos and no I would not stop buying it just because of a price increase. If we start saying that this drink should be exempt because we use it for hypo's then what's to stop other people saying that other drinks should be exempt also. It's just not logical to exempt 1 thing over another. Their are plenty of other hypo treatments available that can be used such as glucose tabs, jelly babies etc.
 
Lucozade is the only thing that brings me back and it has saved my life more times than i can count. Bad months i can go through 6 bottles a day good months it can be 1 or 2 bottles a day. It costs a fortune as it is and i think there should be something so that people with diabetes are not punished for having a condition they never asked for. I can't use anything else and trust me i've tried it nothing works as fast as lucozade and i would be up poo creak without it, i can't imagine how much i would have cost the NHS had the paramedics had to be called for every hypo i've had. In 18 years of having diabetes the paramedics have been out to me 4 times the rest of my hypo's have been sorted by lucozade.
 
I think it should be taxed. If you have a medical condition that requires sugary drinks Gp's and hospitals should have a card which says exempt which has the doctors name and signature on it to show the shop to take off the tax.
 
Rosina_Rushen said:
I think it should be taxed. If you have a medical condition that requires sugary drinks Gp's and hospitals should have a card which says exempt which has the doctors name and signature on it to show the shop to take off the tax.
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unfortunately it isnt a tax as such that can be taken off. It is a charge made on the manufacturers. The aim is to drive them to have less sugar. So (as an example) you may still be able to buy your lucozade but would possibly need to drink the whole bottle to get 20g. If it had been a tax like VAT or petrol fuel duty then it would have been easy to determine what that is for each item.

Personally I think they should treat it just the same as each other sweet fizzy drink.
 
I think it should be taxed. Plus it could be a positive thing as people will try harder to control it and not eat so many things that are bad for us. We are also wanting to fit in more and forget we have diabetes. Would this not be a reminder of that.


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mahola said:
So if Lucozade goes up slightly in price due to the sugar tax; are all those who use it to treat a hypo going to stop buying it? No, thought not.
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They are more likely to throw it back at the person trying to help. From some the anecdotal hypo tails I've read. ;)
 
catapillar said:
I don't think lucozade or glucojuice (or other hypo treatments) should be generally exempt because there would be a risk of abuse. Although I can't really see the cool kids deciding to save 8p and swigging on lucozade instead of Coke!

Ideally, I would like to see an exemption or rebate scheme for insulin dependant diabetics buying hypo treatments that are caught by he sugar tax. But I absolutely appreciate that the costs of such a scheme would probably make it counter productive.

I understand that funds raised from the sugar tax will go to funding healthy lifestyle education in schools. So what I would like to see is the money (or a percentage of the money) raised to the sugar tax from products widely & traditionally used as hypo treatments going to fund education for insulin dependent children on how to manage diabetes and exercise. I think that would be a nice compromise position that wouldn't undermine the public health aims of the tax, would hopefully not be costly to administer and would mean that I wouldn't feel like I was being unfairly penalised for having to purchase hypo treatments.

Just an idea :)
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A much better solution would be for Type I's to be able to claim back the tax from sugary drinks, or even better than that be able to claim from welfare the cost associated with having to buy sugary foods and drinks specifically for treating hypo's!!
 
marko33 said:
I think it should be taxed. We may need it but that is only if we do not look after our diabetes. Plus it could be a positive thing as people will try harder to control it and not eat so many things that are bad for us. We are also wanting to fit in more and forget we have diabetes. Would this not be a reminder of that.
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Hypo's aren't always avoidable, it's not as if you over inject insulin just so you can have a bit extra to eat. lol. Hypo's can and do happen , even though the person has not over dosed on the insulin. There are many factors to consider!!
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Jaylee said:
They are more likely to throw it back at the person trying to help. From some the anecdotal hypo tails I've read. ;)
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On principle, don't buy it, then hypo's will have to be dealt with by the emergency services and NHS. A lot more cases of people being admitted and more stretch for the NHS, only then will this government see that certain people should be exempt from this preposterous tax!

edited to remove inflammatory remark
 
gscorey said:
A much better solution would be for Type I's to be able to claim back the tax from sugary drinks
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.... At the airport when checking out the UK on our new foreign national passport??

Crickey this thread is getting silly.. :banghead:
 
gscorey said:
A much better solution would be for Type I's to be able to claim back the tax from sugary drinks, or even better than that be able to claim from welfare the cost associated with having to buy sugary foods and drinks specifically for treating hypo's!!
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I'm not sure I understand what you mean by welfare costs?

It would be nice to just claim the tax back, but that isn't an option that is currently available for VAT on hypo treatments (i think because it would be vulnerable to abuse) so I can't see that happening. I would also be concerned that if the sugar tax adds <8p onto the cost of the hypo treatment it would probably cost more to process the request for the rebate than the rebate itself.

That's why I thought a compromise position, which wouldn't have too large an administrative cost if the sugar tax is being used to fund healthy lifestyle education anyway, would be to ensure that some money raised from lucozade/glucojuice went to fund education for diabetic kids on managing insulin and exercise. That education might then reduce the need for hypo treatments (I'm an optimist) and it would certainly make me feel less like it was a hypo tax/punishment.
 
gscorey said:
On principle, don't buy it, then hypo's will have to be dealt with by the emergency services and NHS. A lot more cases of people being admitted and more stretch for the NHS,.......certain people should be exempt from this preposterous tax!
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Well and who do you think will be paying for your hypos then? The rest of us! How is that fair? T1s are already exempt from paying prescription charges. Many of us aren't. Asthmatics aren't exempt even though their drugs are life saving ones too.
 
RachaelRodgers said:
Lucozade is the only thing that brings me back and it has saved my life more times than i can count. Bad months i can go through 6 bottles a day good months it can be 1 or 2 bottles a day. It costs a fortune as it is and i think there should be something so that people with diabetes are not punished for having a condition they never asked for. I can't use anything else and trust me i've tried it nothing works as fast as lucozade and i would be up poo creak without it, i can't imagine how much i would have cost the NHS had the paramedics had to be called for every hypo i've had. In 18 years of having diabetes the paramedics have been out to me 4 times the rest of my hypo's have been sorted by lucozade.
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One or two full bottles a day?:wideyed: Every day? How many hypo's do you have during the day?
 
gscorey said:
On principle, don't buy it, then hypo's will have to be dealt with by the emergency services and NHS. A lot more cases of people being admitted and more stretch for the NHS, only then will this government see that certain people should be exempt from this preposterous tax!

edited to remove inflammatory remark
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Just to set the record straight.. I am neither a "Tory", nor have I ever since diagnosis 40 years ago needed anyone other than myself to sort my hypos out.


gscorey said:
Well if you're not in the UK then how does the tax affect you??
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Oh, but I am.. South West. My pasport runs out un June, but I plan to renew it. I've traveled a bit & seen a lot worse. ;)
 
zand said:
Well and who do you think will be paying for your hypos then? The rest of us! How is that fair? T1s are already exempt from paying prescription charges. Many of us aren't. Asthmatics aren't even though their drugs are life saving ones too.
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There are thousands of families who are struggling to even scrape by with a type I diabetic in their family. They struggle to get the food they need on a daily basis and have to rely on outside sources for help and support. This tax is going to be yet, another burden on their already overstretched finances. So yes, I think we should be prepared to help people like this, maybe tax the richest in this country at a higher rate, so that money can then be available to support the extra burden by Type I's and hypo treatments.
 
Jaylee said:
Just to set the record straight.. I am neither a "Tory", nor have I ever since diagnosis 40 years ago needed anyone other than myself to sort my hypos out.




Oh, but I am.. South West. My pasport runs out un June, but I plan to renew it. I've traveled a bit & seen a lot worse. ;)
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then what the hell are you on about???
 
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