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

16 correction notes

Showing 16 correction notes.

Sugar is undoubtedly one of the most harmful food ingredients the recommended - which is often the case in our daily diet. To reduce the , many recommend making them more expensive, and I believe that such sugar-packed products to promote public health.

Despite the common myth of the health benefits of sugar, scientists and nutritionists suggest that . Fast foods and sugary foods and drinks like soft drinks, desserts, , and sodas and are ready to be consumed without any effort. This is why they have become so popular, and from children to the elderly, everyone loves those sugary foods and drinks. However, these are known to cause serious diseases like diabetes and heart disease and are connected to obesity. Since they are linked to so many and deaths, should impose taxes, directly and indirectly, on those sugary items to make them and in the process improve public health.

Moreover, people often opt for food and drinks that are cheap and easily available. And if we only look at the around us, we can notice that we have sugary items all around us, and they are affordable. So to restrict sugar intake, their prices should be increased via direct and indirect taxes. If they are made more expensive, people will reduce their consumption and go for alternatives. For instance, if a healthy meal costs $5 while a sugary junk meal $10, most people will go for the cheaper and better option. It will gradually but surely improve public health and reduce medical care expenses both for the government and ordinary citizens.

To conclude, imposing higher taxes on sugary items will bring about many benefits and reduce the cost of healthcare. It is therefore expected that authorities will take steps to make sugar-packed .

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response presents a clear, consistent position and develops it with relevant reasoning and a concrete example, with ideas progressing logically across well-formed paragraphs. The main limitation is occasional imprecision and repetition in language and argumentation, such as sweeping claims and a somewhat loosely worded example, which keep the response from reaching the highest bands.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

7.0

The response addresses the question directly with a clear, consistently maintained agreement position, developing relevant main ideas about health harms and price-driven behaviour change with explanation and an example, though some support remains generalised.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are organised into coherent paragraphs with logical progression and a range of cohesive devices, although occasional connectors like the sentence-initial 'And' and some repetitive links feel slightly mechanical.

Lexical Resource

6.5

Vocabulary is generally adequate for the topic with attempts at less common items like 'slow poison' and 'impose taxes', but there are noticeable imprecisions such as 'potion' for portion, 'health diseases', and 'unaffordable by mass people'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A variety of complex structures, including conditionals, relative clauses, and subordination, is used with generally good control, and errors are minor and rarely impede meaning.