How Is Norway Battling Sugar Intake?

Generally speaking, the glowing and touristy Northern European nation of Norway is considered a wonderland for those who want to experience the very best that Scandinavia has to offer. When it’s not the flourishing oil industry or the magnificent view of its majestic Northern Lights, then Norway also makes headlines for its very pro-electric car revolution, the likes of a Tesla running on the Norwegian road hardly seeming like a surprise.

What one doesn’t generally associate with the economically thriving European nation is a culture of battling against sugar intake. Yes, you read that right.

Battling sugar intake in Norway is actually more than just a fad, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Truth be told, battling sugar intake in Norway seems to be an actively-pursued conscientious step taken by the government in a bid to remind its citizens about the perils associated with eating unhealthily.

And that said, where it stands at the moment, it could be said that the concept of battling sugar intake in Norway has led to a nation-wide success for Norwegians have quite simply cut their sugar intake to lowest levels in the past 44 years.

That’s right. The amount of sugar being had in the Northern European country hasn’t been as low in the past four and a half decades.

There are a lot of important steps that have been executed in a bid to counter the rising health anomalies arising out of excessive sugar intake, especially from the government’s perspective. In fact, if one were to rewinds the clocks back to 1922, then one would arrive at a landmark moment in the history of the country.

Back in 1922, the country introduced a sugar tax for the first time, something that has remained ever since. Furthermore, in order to ensure that battling sugar intake in Norway reaches new successful heights, the country has introduced separate taxes for confectionery as well as sugary drinks.

These have been incorporated to promote a healthy culture among its residents. What’s also interesting to learn is that where it comes to a per person figure, then the annual consumption of sugar in the country has come down significantly, plummeting from 43 kg to 24 kg from the period of 2000 to 2018.

Increasingly graduating toward a healthy eating culture, it could be said that the Norwegians have raised the standard for nutritious eating not only for Scandinavia but for the rest of the continent.

The Guardian of England reported some interesting facts about a story that is bound to make the average Norwegian proud of his country. It shared:

The directorate’s annual report on the Norwegian diet said that the average annual consumption of sugar had plummeted from 43kg to 24kg per person between 2000 and 2018 – including a 27% reduction in the past decade – to a level lower than that recorded in 1975.

In Norway, during January 2018, the levy on chocolate and confectionery went up by 83% to 36.92 krone (£3.12) per kilo, and on sugary and artificially-sweetened drinks by 42% to 4.75 (40p) a liter.

That told, how this tax implementation has worked out could be gauged from the market performance of usually high-selling items such as soft drinks. Of late, battling sugar intake in Norway has proven out to be a success, a fact that can be understood by the dip in the sales of sugary soft drinks, an item that was peaking back in the 1990s but has now reduced to a level of 47 liters per person (according to the numbers from the last year).