Restaurants, cafes and canteens in France have been banned from offering customers unlimited amounts of sugary drinks in an attempt to reduce obesity.
The new law makes it illegal to offer all-you-can-drink deals anywhere in France, where the number of overweight or obese people has increased in recent years.
Although obesity in France is still below the average in the European Union, health chiefs there have responded to the World Health Organization’s recommendation of taxing sugary drinks, which it says is linked to diabetes and other health problems. A similar ban is set to be introduced in Britain in 2018.
Self-service “soda fountains” have long been a feature of family restaurants and cafes in some countries in Europe. The new law in France also targets sports drinks containing added sugar or sweeteners.
The aim of the law is to “limit, especially among the young, the risks of obesity, overweight and diabetes” in line with WHO recommendations.
A recent Eurostat survey of adult obesity stated that 15.3 per cent of the French population is overweight – just below the EU average of 15.9%. French people are on average slimmer than UK citizens (20.1 per cent) but fatter than Italians (10.7 per cent).
Past the age of 30, nearly 57 per cent of French men are overweight or obese, according to a report published by the French medical journal Bulletin Epidemiologique Hebdomadaire. The same study stated that 41% of women of the same age are also overweight or obese.