INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE

ANALYSIS OF THE OFFICIAL RESOLUTION TO IMPLEMENT THE IEPS TAX TO

SUGAR BEVERAGES.

Lorena Reyes-Retana Bremer

A01190485

February 15, 2019

MONTERREY, NUEVO LEÓN
1 What are the arguments of the
article in the Official diary
(DOF)?
2 What are the consistencies or
inconsistencies that you found in
the document?
3 What are the bias or errors that
you found in the arguments (bad
arguments, fallacies, omissions,
false inferences and deceptive
statistics)?
4 Can conclusions be derived from
the arguments?
 High consumption of sugar added in beverages
contributes notoriously to the excessive caloric
intakes leading to overweight and obesity in
Mexico.
 There is a high prevalence of overweight people and
obesity in Mexico
 Establishing 1 peso tariff in sugar added beverages
 This is a problem with great magnitude in Public
Health System
There is a clear problem with the consistency of the
article. It starts by mentioning the impact of sugar
added beverages, and then it mentions to change the
food consumption and physical patterns. After that,
there is a shift turning into how to protect, promote
and prevent the improvement of health and all the
chronic diseases related to weight and diet habits
(Hypertension, Diabetes, etc.) The conclusion of the
article only focuses on the taxing of sugared
beverages, and forgetting the rest. (Not mentioning
the first part at all.)
This article is relating the obesity and diabetes
problem strictly to the consumption of sugary drinks
when it’s not the only factor. There are incomplete
arguments, missing hard facts and statistics, and let
the reader create false inferences with the lack of
concrete information. Logical fallacies can be found
across the article like:
 Either or fallacy: in which the author implies that if
there is a tax in the sugary drinks this will affect
directly to the reduction of obesity and diabetes,
without considering all the other options.
 False cause: the implication that chronic diseases
such as hypertension, diabetes, overweight and
obesity is related to sugary drinks prices and putting a
tax on this will help prevent it.
 Ambiguity: what the articles suffers more of is its
ambiguity with lack of detail and poor statistics.
Conclusions with a lack of hard evidence can be made.
Even if the proposal is in the right direction, is not
adequate to make a decision without having well
sourced arguments, with statistics and lack of
ambiguity. The article is based more on claims than
 on affirmations.
5 Does the point of view of the There is not any evidence that this document is
document is derived from derived from hard research, there are not cited
research? sources, real statistics, its more an opinion paper
than a research one.
6 In which way are you ordering For my argument I would mention that: Mexico
your own arguments to avoid has high rates of obesity with more than 70% of
being disperse the population considered overweight or obese.
With a high prevalence of diabetes and chronic
diseases in the country, the need for action is more
urgent than ever. According to the WHO the
recommended limiting amount of added sugars
should be below 10% of the total energy intake. In
Mexico, the added sugar represents 12.5% of the
total energy intake (Above recommendations) and
more than 70% of this added sugar comes from
sugar-sweetened drinks. Mexico is one of the
countries with the highest sugary drink
consumption, especially in low-income
households.
Adding a tax on sugary drinks can be a motivator to reduce
the sugary drinks consumption and therefore having an
impact in the 70% of added sugar in the diets of Mexican
people.

REFERENCES

Boseley, S. (2017). Mexico's sugar tax leads to fall in

consumption for second year running. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/22/mexico-
sugar-tax-lower-consumption-second-year-running

Colchero, M., Molina, M., & Guerrero-López, C. (2017). After

Mexico Implemented a Tax, Purchases of Sugar-Sweetened
Beverages Decreased and Water Increased: Difference by
Place of Residence, Household Composition, and Income
Level. Retrieved from
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/147/8/1552/4669734
CONCLUSION

What can be concluded from the analysis of the text is that it is mainly based
on claims and suppositions. There is a need for a hard data, statistics, and concrete
information to help sustain the solution that is being presented for the overweight,
obesity and chronic diseases related in Mexico. As much as affirmations and claims
can help an argument without having well informed arguments, the article can
become obsolete. So even if the solution is a good one, there is a need to make a
better statement to prove why is the best one.