Making Sugary Food and Drink Products More Expensive

Many manufactured food and drink products contain high levels of sugar, which causes many health problems. Sugary products should be made more expensive to encourage people to consume less sugar. Do you agree or disagree?

Annotated response

6 correction notes

Showing 6 correction notes.

Many processed foods and drinks are packed with sugar and this leads to many health issues. I agree that, to reduce sugar consumption, should be sold at a higher price.

Many people over-consume sugary products because they are cheap. For example, in the United States, many fast-food restaurants offer free refills on sodas. As a result, customers tend to have two or even three sodas at a meal. to implement a 20% tax on these drinks and stop free refills, many customers probably wouldn’t order one at all, let alone have a second one. A regulation like this could be extremely effective obesity among low-income people since many of them are cheap sugar-sweetened foods and beverages.

In addition, making high-sugar products more expensive can promote healthier eating choices. This is because if the prices of these products increase to a point at which people are unable to afford them regularly, they may turn to foods that are healthier and more affordable. For instance, if a can of strawberry-flavored beverage costs 3 times the price of a box of fresh strawberries, why not choose the cheaper fresh fruits which can also satisfy a craving for sugar. Although fresh fruits also contain sugars, natural sugars are much healthier than added ones.

In conclusion, sugar-sweetened products should be made more costly to reduce sugar intake. For one thing, the over-consumption of these products is partly because of their low cost. For another, increasing their price could encourage people to choose healthier food.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The response presents a clear, consistent position supported by two well-developed, relevantly illustrated arguments, which is its strongest aspect. The main limitation is occasional over-reliance on formulaic linking expressions and slightly mechanical paragraph transitions rather than any substantive weakness in ideas or language.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

7.5

The position is stated clearly and consistently, all parts of the task are addressed, and main ideas about pricing and healthier substitution are well developed with relevant examples such as soda taxes and free refills.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are logically organised across clear paragraphs with generally smooth progression, though cohesion sometimes depends on mechanical connectors like 'for one thing' and 'for another'.

Lexical Resource

7.5

Vocabulary is sufficiently flexible and precise for the topic, with natural collocations such as 'sugar-sweetened beverages', 'free refills', and 'satisfy a craving', showing some awareness of style.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A variety of complex structures is used with generally good control, including conditionals and relative clauses, with only occasional minor slips that do not impede understanding.