A new government campaign which encourages parents to cut down the amount of sugar their children consume has been launched today.
The Change4Life campaign, organised by Public Health England, claims that children aged four to 10 get 17% of their daily sugar allowance from biscuits, buns, cakes, pastries and fruit pies and 14% from confectionery. While guidelines state that no more that 10% of a person’s daily energy or calorie intake should be made up of sugar, at present, children aged four to 10 years are consuming up to 50% more than this.
Change4Life said recently published data highlighted that approximately one in five children aged four to five years old and one in three children aged 10 to 11 years old was overweight or obese. It is recommending a number of ‘sugar swaps’.
The campaign launch follows a new survey amongst Netmums users, who were polled on their views on sugar. The results highlighted that nearly half (47%) of mums surveyed thought their family had too much sugar in their diets and two-thirds of mums (67%) were worried about the amount of sugar their children consume.
Impact
Professor Kevin Fenton, national director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England, said: “Reducing sugar intake is important for the health of our children both now and in the future. We are all eating too much sugar and the impact this has on our health is evident.
“This campaign is about taking small steps to address this. We know from past campaigns that making simple swaps works and makes a real difference. This year we wanted to be even more single-minded in our approach, which is why we are focusing on sugar alone.”
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