According to a congressional commission on children’s rights, 70 percent of Mexican youths accompany their daily breakfast with sugar-packed soda (refresco).
In light of this disquieting statistic – together with Mexico’s dubious distinction as the leader in soda consumption in the Americas (163 liters a year per person) - the commission, headed by congresswoman Soledad Sandoval Martinez, is putting together an initiative to promote education on the dangers of excessive sugar consumption, in particular its relationship to diabetes, a disease which currently affects 10.8 percent of the country’s population.
This latest institutional health education push comes four years after the initiation of the National Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Obesity and Diabetes, which among other things placed a special tax on the production and sale of sugary beverages.