Melbourne’s biggest soft drink guzzlers revealed

Some Melbourne soft drink addicts are splurging up to $500 a year on sugary drinks and where you live can dictate your fondness for the sweet beverages. Does your suburb have a fizzy drink addiction?

Victoria’s biggest soft drink guzzling suburbs have been uncovered by researchers.

Those most addicted to a fizzy sugary fix spend almost twice as much as households that are less hooked, Australian National University analysis reveals.

People in some suburbs are splurging up to $500 a year each on average on sugary drinks, it found.

Residents in the Rockbank-Mount Cottrell region have the biggest habit, followed by Narre Warren, Cranbourne South, Cairnlea and Wallan.

Those living in South Yarra, Parkville, Docklands, Southbank and Albert Park spend the least.

The research mapped expenditure patterns per head by area statewide.

People in some suburbs are splurging up to $500 a year each on average on sugary drinks, according to new research. Picture: Sarah Matray

ANU associate professor Ben Phillips said the results suggested that imposing a tax on sugary drinks in Australia, as proposed by some health campaigners, would hit lower-income households hardest.

“Excessive consumption of sugar has been linked to a range of health conditions and chronic disease such as overweight and obesity, heart disease, and diabetes,” Prof Phillips said.

“One potential partial solution to these problems that has been raised is putting a tax on sugary drinks.”

Soft drink taxes have already been introduced in dozens of countries, including the United Kingdom, and in eight states in the US.

“Our research shows sugary drinks expenditure patterns tend to divide quite heavily between richer and poorer suburbs,” Prof Phillips said.

“A sugar tax can also be designed to encourage industry to add less sugar to soft drinks.

“The ultimate outcome could simply be less sugar in soft drinks rather than higher prices for consumers.”

Australian Beverages Council CEO Geoff Parker said a soft drink tax was unnecessary and would discriminate against “a small and declining part of the overall diet”.

It would also penalise households already feeling the pinch from rising costs of living, he said.

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Major beverage companies had pledged to reduce sugar across all drink types by 20 per cent by 2025.

“The industry recognises it’s got a role to play to provide more choices for people who want to cut down sugar in their diet,” Mr Parker said.

The ANU analysis was jointly done by the university’s Research School of Population Health, and Centre for Social Research and Methods.

It was drawn from Census and Australian Bureau of Statistics expenditure data.