New UK Guidelines Caution Sugar-Intake

The worldwide health campaign against sugar continues with new UK guidelines urging people to consume no more than a single glass of fruit juice a day. The auggestions follow those from the World Health Organisation (WHO) who say an adult should limit sugar intake from processed sources to six teaspoons equivalent per day.   Fruit juices and fizzy drinks were targeted in the UK national diet and nutrition survey by Public Health England. It warned that parents and children are consuming unsafe quantities of sugar, in turn feeding into an obesity epidemic and rapid increase in diabetes.   The same risks exist here where the intake is well above WHO recommendations, said Dr Cliona Foley Nolan, director of human health and nutrition at Safe Food, the food safety promotion board.   Added sugar should be no more than 11% of daily calorific intake but all age categories in Britain exceed this, noted the report. Under-10s got 14.7 per cent of their calories from added sugar, while 11 to 18s reached 15.6 per cent. Adults too were above the recommendation with added sugar making up 12.1 per cent of calorie intake.   Last March the WHO published draft guidelines that halved its recommended free sugar intake, taking it down from 10% of daily energy intake to just 5%. This equates to just six teaspoons of sugar a day for an adult of average weight.   © 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Peter Donnelly To sign up to ESM’s weekly e-zine newsletter, send an email with the subject: ‘Subscribe ESM news’ to [email protected]