A new drive to help families across Wales cut back on the amount of sugar they eat each week has been launched by the Welsh Government.
The Change4Life Sugar Swap campaign is aimed at families with children aged four to 11 and offers tips on how to replace sugary foods with other options.
Families can sign-up for a free Sugar Swaps pack to help them get started and get advice on how to change their eating habits.
Medical advice is that no more than 10% of a person’s daily calorie intake should by made up of sugar, which is the equivalent of 11 to 14 level teaspoons of sugar a day. A can of fizzy drink can contain nine teaspoons of sugar, with up to 40 teaspoons in a two-litre bottle.
The latest figures show 40% of seven to 11-year-olds in Wales are obese or overweight.
Chief Medical Officer for Wales Dr Ruth Hussey said: “People across Wales are eating too much sugar. It’s surprising how much sugar there is in some of the food and drink we give our children and these eating habits can have a huge impact on their health.
“From cereal in the morning through to puddings in the evening, not to mention the sugary drinks and snacks, it all adds up. Too much sugar can mean our children facing a life of bad health, from obesity, type 2 diabetes through to dental problems.
“With the Sugar Swaps campaign we are helping families take small steps to make a huge difference to the lives of their children.”
Last week Welsh Health Minister Mark Drakeford called for more to be done to reduce the amount of sugar in foods.
Professor Drakeford was giving evidence to the National Assembly’s Children and Young People Committee as part of its inquiry into childhood obesity.
He told AMs : “More could and should be done to reduce the impact of the food industry.
“The food industry is busy putting more and more sugar into people’s diets.
“The UK Government’s position is very much voluntary – it will not move into more mandatory measures. I have to recognise that my own position would be much more at the mandatory end.
“If we take the voluntary approach at the moment, I think there is more that we can do, but it has to be done on a UK basis.”
“The food industry is busy putting more and more sugar into people’s diets.”
This has happened because of previous campaigns against fat, particularly saturated fat, in food. Fat is a natural part of our diet and reduced fat led to food tasting like cardboard. The food manufacturers had to offer ‘fat free’ or ‘reduced fat’ products because of these campaigns, so added sugar to make them palatable. The statement is incorrect anyway as a manufacturer cannot add anything to anyones diet. It is up to people to chose what they want to eat, whether that is a sugary cereal bar or unsweetened porridge.
Rather than yet another campaign why doesn’t the government introduce cookery lessons to all school children? They can call it domestic science if they want it to sound cool. That way children can learn about the components of food and how to cook their own, nutritious, meals. Just a thought.
I am not sure cookery lessons will help the problem. The white elephant people always overlook is taste.
A can of coca cola is nicer than a glass of water. Sugary sweets are nicer than fruit (though fruit contains sugar), chocolate is nicer than a fruit salad, a burger and chips meal is nicer than a Sunday roast etc.. Until the industry as a whole either invents healthy, tasty snacks, or lowers the level of sugar without compromising safety, nothing will improve.
Looking at cooking as a whole, it’s not difficult to follow an online recipe. I’m a terrible cook but when I’ve got Nigella Lawson holding my hand via one of her books cooking is a breeze. Cookery seems to be a subject based more on nostalgia than it does need. Ultimately, people cooking less comes down to a busier life, the ease of take-aways, and laziness; not a lack of knowledge.
The problem is also caused by bad parenting. It should be up to the parents to teach offspring the very basics of cooking, how to eat healthily, and how to manage a diet. The state should stop with its paternalistic approach instead becoming minimal.
I think cookery lessons will help, lots of parents are not up to much in the cooking department and therefore cannot teach the children. This is not the childs fault and learning outside the home may be the only way to gain a lifelong skill. My other point is that the children learn about the component parts of food. Even if they don’t cook much when they become adult they will understand the role of fats, starch, fibre, vitamins and so on. Everyone should be free to eat whatever they can obtain but I argue that an informed choice is better than a being ignorant of what is in, for instance, a burger.
On the subject of taste, I am not sure that eating well should be limited to those who are nostalgic and real food should taste good. I made a lamb stew on Saturday, the ingredients took about half an hour to prepare and cooking time was an hour and a half. This took a little bit of organisation, for sure, but made more than one nutritious and cheap meal. I came home from a council meeting at gone half past eight last night but rather than buy chips or a kebab I simply heated a bowl of stew in the microwave, stirred in a teaspoon full of whole grain mustard, for added cold weather protection, and was sat down to eat five minutes after coming in through the door.
Meanwhile the Welsh Government give sugary sweet company Bon Bon Buddies £27’360 to help grow their business – the business of selling as many high sugar products as they can to children aged 4 to 11. Well done Welsh Government keep up the good work!
That is true, I had forgotten about that news story. Anything to publicise themselves I suppose, regardless of what is of real benefit to the people of wales.
A campaign that will do nothing. We have a generation that cannot cook and a generation that think it’s everyone else’s responsibility to look after their kids. Too often I see kids going to school with chocolate for breakfast whilst partners walk beside them with a can of energy drink in one hand, cigarette in the other. They have sweets on the way home then consume large amounts of rubbish in the house. They have no exercise because mum is too busy on her phone trying to work out who the father is.
Tax payer you are absolutely 100% correct, and as long as the state keeps rewarding and pandering to this shameless bone idle lot things will only get worse as these kids will only go on to reproduce clones of themselves.