Mexico’s soda tax: Confronting soft drink giants

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2013, Mexico’s government approved a tax on sugary soft drinks. The country has one of the highest rates of fizzy drink consumption in the world.

Some rural homes do not have access to safe drinking water and a third of schools do not have drinking water. Consequently, carbonated drinks would be sold in schools across the country.

Grace Livingstone speaks to Dr Simon Barquera, director of health and nutrition research at Mexico’s Institute of public health. He faced intimidation and spying attempts for advocating the tax.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Sugary drinks. Credit: PA)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself. My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts. I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with leading journalists, experienced pundits and the biggest sports stars. Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the player's mouths. But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sporting world.
0:24.6	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to dedicated sports fans across the UK.
0:30.6	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:39.5	Hello, welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Grace Livingstone.
0:47.9	I'm taking you back to 2013, when Mexico's Congress approved a tax on sugary drinks, the aim was to improve people's health.
0:57.2	I was in a meeting with other colleagues from the Institute of Public Health,
1:01.8	and we heard the good news that the soda tax was approved and it was amazing.
1:06.4	We couldn't believe it.
1:07.7	We were like, really?
1:08.9	And people was confirming the news with other contacts, and everybody was, like, very excited believe it. We were like, really, and people was confirming the news with other contacts,
1:12.4	and everybody was, like, very excited about it. Dr. Simon Barkera was then a lead researcher
1:18.5	at Mexico's Institute for Public Health. He fought a long, hard battle against big corporations
1:24.6	and politicians to achieve this change, And he says he faced intimidation
1:29.4	and even spying attempts along the way. But first, combating a growing diabetes epidemic in Mexico.
1:37.2	Diabetes has increased by almost 70% since 2006 and is now a leading cause of death,
1:43.4	according to the Mexican Ministry of Health.
1:45.8	Dr. Barkera was one of the first scientists in Mexico to link the upsurge in the disease
1:51.0	to the consumption of sugary soft drinks, as well as ultra-processed foods.
1:56.3	Diabetes in Mexico has been declared a national emergency. Very high mortality. People is dying from
2:03.6	diabetes at a very high rate, like one million in 10 years. So this is entire cities.
2:13.3	Mexico was the world's third largest consumer of sugary fizzy drinks per head, between 2006 and 2019,
2:21.4	according to analysts Zenith Global.
	...

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