DT News - UK - BDA calls for radical action to lower Britain’s sugar intake

Dental Tribune International

Thu. 6 August 2015

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LONDON, UK: Lately, there have been increasing efforts to curb Britain’s high sugar consumption. Although the British Dental Association (BDA) has welcomed Tesco’s recent announcement that it is banning high-sugar drinks from its shelves, the association has called for action that goes further than “symbolic” concessions and urged government to follow the recommendations of the report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).

“Finally we’re seeing big retailers waking up to the sugar crisis. That’s progress, but these symbolic gestures should not disguise the fact supermarkets are still banking on the nation’s sweet tooth,” Dr Mick Armstrong, Chair of the BDA, said.

“The recent obituaries for Capri Sun, Ribena or Percy Pigs are designed first and foremost to fill up column inches and Twitter feeds. PR stunts should not blind government, parents or health practitioners to the need for real, co-ordinated action to address Britain’s addiction to sugar,” remarked Armstrong on Tesco’s plans to take added-sugar drinks out of the children’s juice department starting in September.

Tesco’s plans echo recent recommendations in the Carbohydrates and Health report, published by SACN on 17 July, which advises reducing the daily energy intake of sugars from 10 to 5 per cent. The report also recommends that consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks be minimised and of fibre be increased.

According to the health experts, 5 per cent of daily energy intake is the equivalent of 19 g or five sugar cubes for children aged 4–6, 24 g or six sugar cubes for children aged 7–10, and 30 g or seven sugar cubes for those aged 11 and over, based on average diets.

The SACN findings, established by a group of independent experts that advises government on matters relating to diet, nutrition and health, offer the first wide-ranging look at the relationship between sugar consumption and health outcomes in the UK since the 1990s.

Other national statistics have shown that British children especially are consuming unhealthy amounts of free sugars—the nutrient-free refined sugar added to products such as sweetened drinks—in their daily diet. At 30 per cent, soft drinks accounted for the majority of sugar in the diet of 4- to 10-year-olds, the 2014 National Diet and Nutrition Survey found.

Soft drinks and juices are especially harmful to the teeth, since they tend to be very acidic, which makes the teeth particularly vulnerable to both dental decay and tooth erosion. Aside from posing oral health risks, a diet rich in free sugars has been linked to obesity and Type 2 diabetes, among other conditions.

With reference to the SACN recommendations, the BDA has called for radical measures to cut Britain’s sugar intake, including lowering the recommended daily allowance, and action on marketing, labelling and sales taxes. The BDA has launched an online petition addressed to Prime Minister David Cameron, inviting both health professionals and patients to lend support to SACN’s proposals at Change.org.

“We have an historic opportunity here to end Britain’s addiction to sugar. The government now has the evidence and a clear duty to send the strongest possible signal to the food industry, that while added sugar might be helping their sales, it is hurting their customers,” Armstrong said.

The complete SACN report can be accessed at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sacn-carbohydrates-and-health-report.

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