- World Health Organisation guidelines recommend halving the current limit
- They could mean food companies have to change their products
- A Mars bar contains five teaspoons of sugar, a can of cola ten, a bowl of Coco Pops four, and some ready meals have as many as eight
By
Sophie Borland
18:02 EST, 29 December 2013
|
18:38 EST, 29 December 2013
Adults could be advised to halve the amount of sugar in their diets under new guidelines from the World Health Organisation.
Experts are considering lowering the recommended limit of ten teaspoons a day to just five over fears that it is contributing to heart disease, obesity and tooth decay.
Food companies may have to change their products to lower the sugar content, which would be hugely expensive and could prove unpopular with some consumers.
Touching the limit: A single Mars bar contains five teaspoons of sugar
A single can of cola contains ten teaspoons of sugar, a Mars bar has five, a bowl of Coco Pops has about four and there are eight in some ready meals.
The average Briton consumes 12 teaspoons a day, although research has found that some adults in industrialised countries are eating as many as 46 daily.
Philip James, president of the International Association for the Study on Obesity, which works with the WHO, described the suggestion as ‘political dynamite’.
‘The food industry will do everything in their power to undermine this,’ he said.
The guidance suggests lowering the amount of sugar added to food – excluding that which occurs naturally in fruit or starch – from 10 per cent to five per cent of the daily allowance, which is equivalent to five teaspoons.
High in sugar: A bowl of Coco Pops contains around four teaspoons of sugar
The policy would almost certainly be adopted by the Department of Health.
Professor Shrinath Reddy, a cardiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health and member of the WHO panel of experts, said: ‘I would agree with the recommendation to reduce it to five per cent.
‘There is overwhelming evidence coming out about sugar-sweetened beverages and other sugar consumption links to obesity, diabetes and even cardiovascular disease.’
The proposals were discussed at a meeting earlier this year after a study by Professor Paula Moynihan, an expert in nutrition and oral health at Newcastle University, highlighted the danger of sugar to dental health.
‘Part of the problem is that sugary foods and drinks are now staples in many people’s diet in industrialised countries, whereas once they were an occasional treat,’ he said.
‘We need to reverse this trend.’
The WHO panel will consider the guidance over the coming months before making a final decision.
Sugar Nutrition UK, an industry-funded research body, pointed out that UK manufacturers had been lowering the level of sugar in recent years to make products healthier.
‘There is no data to show that reducing intake below current levels is beneficial to health,’ said a spokesman, who claimed that the guidance was based on studies ‘of very low quality’.
Research three years ago by the Emory School of Medicine in the US found that some adults were eating 46 teaspoons of sugar a day. This included six in a bowl of cereal, 14 for lunch including a slice of pizza and a fizzy drink, and 16 for a ready meal in the evening with another sugary beverage.
Kellogg’s was criticised last year by the Advertising Standards Agency for claiming that high sugar was not linked to obesity.
Its Coco Pops website claimed: ‘A panel of world health experts recently reviewed all the evidence and concluded that a high sugar intake is not related to obesity, or the development of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer.
‘Nor was it connected to behavioural problems, such as hyperactivity, in children.’
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Grasshopper Farmer,
Sandburrville,
7 minutes ago
One can never have enough sugar. The fifth tea of the evening, sugared of course, with some of those Christmas chocolates sounds good right now.
VOTE _UKIP,
PUT_THE_GREAT_BACK_IN_BRITAIN, United Kingdom,
10 minutes ago
cut the amount of mars bar intake by half Marianne Faithfull will not be pleased
Mother of Two,
At home,
20 minutes ago
And years ago, cigarettes were advertised as having health benefits. The more entrenched the habit, the bigger the profits, the stronger the lobby, the less likely we are to hear the truth. Commonsense tells us that our diet and lifestyle have changed from the 1960s when people were much thinner than they are now. And the answer is we eat mountains of sugar and drive everywhere instead of walk.
M41Beijing,
Beijing, China,
41 minutes ago
To be honest many UK citizens now just frown upon ‘advice’ given about lifestyle. I have a degree in Biochemistry Immunology (from 1995) and even I am getting lost on all the research and empirical evidence which often contradicts or weorse confuses us. Coronary heart disease and other obese related diseases are more biased towards genes than environment, that is why you dont see all fat people dropping down dead and ‘fit’ always living long. I am not denouncing healthy living I am merely stating the information out there confuses people. I say enjoy your life, don’t get too crazy on supposed fad modern hype about food/ exercise
Eightyshilling,
manchester, United Kingdom,
53 minutes ago
sugar is radioactive, it has a half-life of 800 years
martin,
cheshire,
1 hour ago
Oh good, that’s given them an excuse to shrink chocolate bars even more (without shrinking the price to match, of course)
XXXXinger,
NSW, Australia,
1 hour ago
I’ve never been overweight. Yet I’ve never dieted – although I naturally don’t eat large meals, as I get full very quickly, one mouthful past the ‘full’ feeling makes me feel very yikky, so sometimes I stop eating with only a couple of mouthfuls left on the plate (which people find hard to understand!). I have been like that for as long as I can remember. I am quite happy to eat chocolates and always have sugar in my tea and coffee — I never drink soft drink nor much alcohol. I just listen to my body .. I must be doing something right as (pregnancy excepted) I’ve never weighed over 50kg.
TWIXYTWIX,
HERTFORDSHIRE,
1 hour ago
So they want us to eat less sugary foods. Does this include low fat yoghurt which contains almost 20g of sugar in a 125g pot? All low fat products contains high level of sugar. It will be fun to see how the low fat industry going to do about decreasing the sugar.
Grumpus,
Blackburn, United Kingdom,
1 hour ago
Cutting the sugar is a fine idea, but please don’t replace your sweet cravings with artificial sweeteners. They are far more unhealthy.
Jack Sprat,
London,
1 hour ago
A few years ago, I recall reading of what was stated to be the most wide-ranging examination ever conducted into the effects of sugar. According to this study, there were no links to heart disease, none to diabetes (as a causative factor) and none to any other illnesses either. The only proven detrimental effect was on dental caries, but no more so than bread, potatoes, or other common sources of starch. Now we have this, so yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice. Me, I’ll continue to regard it as a harmless and useful vegetable extract. Nice too.
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