It's that time of year where, after a Christmas holiday with time to eat, drink and reflect, many of choose to go on diets or exercise in a bid to lose weight.

However it seems we are getting worse and worse at shedding the pounds after The National Obesity Forum estimated half the UK population will be obese by the year 2050. 

Currently about a quarter of all adults are obese, while another 41 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women are overweight.

It comes in the same month as a new campaign group Action on Sugar attracted publicity by claiming "sugar is the new tobacco" and called for Government to take a tougher stance on how much sugar is put in food by manufacturers.

But if sugar is the new tobacco, should we not simply tax sugar in the same way that we have taxed tobacco? 

Norway currently has a 'generalised sugar tax', which puts a duty on refined sugar products including soft drinks at about 70 pence per kg.

What do you think? Is it time to get tougher on sugar by putting a duty on all products with a certain amount of it? Or that would be a step too far?

Have your say by commenting below and taking part in the poll:

Yesterday's poll result: