Sugar tax to curb chronic diseases
DEGAM welcomes legislative initiative on sugar tax
Advertisement
For years, the German Society for General Practice and Family Medicine (DEGAM) has been calling for more commitment to proportional prevention. Now there is a new legislative initiative to introduce a nationwide tax on particularly sugary foods. DEGAM expressly welcomes this initiative.
At the end of December 2025, Daniel Günther, Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein, announced plans for a nationwide sugar tax. According to media reports, the Minister President intends to launch a corresponding initiative in the Bundesrat in the first quarter of 2026.
DEGAM supports these plans and the proposed taxation of particularly sugary foods. "It is high time that Germany finally caught up in terms of ratio prevention. It has long been internationally recognized that it is more effective to focus on changing conditions in the long term than to promote individual behavioural changes. A sugar tax would be a step in the right direction for Germany, towards more proportional prevention," comments Prof. Eva Hummers, President of DEGAM.
Sugar promotes chronic diseases
The DEGAM Prevention Section has summarized why DEGAM supports the legislative initiative in a recent statement: Excessive consumption of sugar is associated with the development of numerous chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, tooth decay and obesity. DEGAM also draws attention to the epidemiological effects: the diseases mentioned are not only associated with considerable individual suffering, reduced quality of life and reduced life expectancy, but also cause high direct and indirect costs for the healthcare system and society as a whole.
Prof. Bettina Engel, spokesperson for the Prevention Section, explains: "We GPs see the consequences of increased sugar consumption in our practices every day. We also see that it is generally very difficult to change individual behavior when unhealthy foods are the cheapest and are also heavily advertised. After all, sugar is similar to smoking: Everyone knows it's unhealthy. But because the sugar content in food is often hidden and difficult for consumers to recognize, it is particularly difficult to make a 'healthier' decision."
Thinking about social aspects
Against this background, DEGAM is in favor of regulatory measures to reduce sugar consumption. International experience, including in the UK, shows that measures such as a sugar tax have led to a significant reduction in the sugar content of processed foods.
The aspect of social justice is also important, adds Dr. Ilja Karl, Deputy Section Spokesperson for Prevention at DEGAM: "Individual behavioral prevention rarely reaches the people with the highest risk of disease, who often live in socially difficult circumstances. With taxes on unhealthy food, however, which are among the classics of public health measures, we can reach all social milieus. This is why the proposed tax on foods with a particularly high sugar content is an important building block for greater social justice in prevention."
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
Other news from the department science
