(Photo: NHS/Creative Commons)
Rachel Kayani
A new campaign has been launched to encourage parents to take control of their children’s sugar consumption.
The campaign follows reports that 4-10 year-old children are consuming around 22kg of sugar each year – the average weight of a 5 year-old.
To help parents get “sugar smart” and be able to find out how much sugar is in products a new app has been released, which can scan the barcodes of products and then show the amount of sugar it contains in either grams or as the number of sugar cubes. The app is free to download and can scan barcodes of thousands of food and drink items.
Health officials are concerned about the amount of sugar children are consuming; young children are eating three times more than the sugar limit. People don’t always realise how much sugar can be in many everyday products, especially drinks and food items that are not usually considered too sugary like yoghurts.
By downloading the app, officials hope it will help parents limit the amount of sugar their children consume and help to combat tooth decay, obesity and type-two diabetes. In addition, parents will become more aware of the hidden sugars in food and drinks and chose more healthy options.
On average children aged four to ten years old are consuming 22kg of added sugar a year. That is over the recommended limits for this age group.
Sugar laden foods, drinks and snacks are now part of everyday life, by providing parents with a way to measure exactly how much sugar is in the food and drinks they buy for their children it is hoped that parents will become more wise to what is in products and sugar consumption in children can be reduced.
The Sugar Smart app is available for free from the app store and google play.