Royal London is urging the government to take further steps towards tackling the obesity epidemic which it believes will not be solved by the sugar tax alone.
The insurer is responding to research from the University of Birmingham presented at the European Obesity Summit which found that five and six year old school children in the Midlands are eating more than four times the recommended daily allowance of sugar.
This is primarily driven by their consumption of fizzy sugary drinks, the study said.
The sugar tax on the UK soft drinks industry was confirmed by chancellor George Osborne in the March 2016 Budget and proposed to increase the price of soft drinks from around 6 to 8 pence.
Royal London recently commissioned YouGov to run a poll of 535 UK adults, who were asked whether the proposed sugar tax would have any impact.
Of the respondents who had children in their household, just 24% agreed that the sugar tax is "exactly the type of action" that will help tackle the obesity epidemic in the UK.
Meanwhile, the majority (63%) agreed that the sugar tax is too little to make a difference.
Just over two-thirds (64%) believed it was likely that the government will consider a tax on other snack foods such as chocolates and crisps.
Gareth Evans, head of corporate affairs at Royal London, said: "The University of Birmingham's study into school children's sugar consumption rings alarm bells, again - with fizzy sugary drinks identified as a key contributor to over consumption of sugar and obesity among children.
"We welcome the government's move to introduce the sugar tax on fizzy drinks, but few believe relying on taxation alone is the answer. Guidance and support to help people change harmful behaviour would be a more positive move to improve the nation's health."
He concluded: "We urge the government to take positive steps to tackle the obesity epidemic and to suggest more positive ways to address the long-term health consequences obesity brings, which we don't believe can be solved by simply taxing certain drinks."
