Singapore by banning ads on sugar beverages sets a precedent to control diabetes.

Singapore by banning ads on sugar beverages sets a precedent to control diabetes: Singapore becomes the first country to ban advertisements for packaged drinks with a high content of sugar. Also, labelling the bottles with the sugar content among others has become mandatory in Singapore.

On 10th October, Edwin Tong, Singapore's senior minister of state for health, announced these changes to control diabetes. This announcement will make the people aware of how much sugar they intake by the drinks before buying them.

Also, the labelling in 30 countries were successful, especially in Chile, the sales of packaged drinks with high sugar content and other things got reduced by more than 25 per cent.

Singapore sets a precedent to other countries by stopping ads on sugar beverages: The hi-fi ads on the SSBs or the packaged sugar-sweetened beverages make many people buy and drink them.

Without knowing the actual content of sugar in them, they with continuous drinking of SSBs easily get affected by diabetes. And in this fast, modern world, without checking for diabetes, many people lose their lives.

Diabetes disasters: When in 2014, WHO confirmed 422 million people affected by diabetes, the 2017 IDF or International Diabetes foundation confirms that by 2045, there will be more than 629 million people affected by diabetes. The other alarming facts of IDF include

• 4 million were dead due to diabetes in 2017 alone
• More than 212 million people or one in two of diabetes affected persons were undiagnosed and hence untreated for diabetes
• 1,106,500 children have type 1 diabetes
• 21 million live birth which is approximately one out of seven births were affected by diabetes during pregnancy
• More than 352 million people in addition to the already 425 million people are prone to develop diabetes sooner than later

Diabetes is now more of an epidemic as per WHO standards, and steps like banning of ads by the Singapore government will set a precedent for other countries to follow.

Also, the labelling method now supported by more than 30 countries and which were successful in reducing more than 25 % sales of sweetened beverages should be introduced in all countries. Only all these measures will at least, to some extent, control the deaths of millions of diabetes patients worldwide.