A new Change4Life campaign encouraging parents to cut down the amount of sugar their children consume by making one or more simple swaps has been launched by Public Health England.
The campaign launches following a new survey amongst Netmums users who were polled on their views on sugar. The results highlight that nearly half (47%) of mums surveyed think their family has too much sugar in their diets and two-thirds of mums (67%) are worried about the amount of sugar their children consume.
Recently published data highlights that approximately 1 in 5 children aged 4 to 5 years old and 1 in 3 children aged 10 to 11 years old is overweight or obese.
Change4Life recommends 4 simple sugar swaps for mums to choose from, tackling different ‘sugar occasions’ in the day: The breakfast swap: sugary cereal for plain cereal, like a wholewheat biscuit cereal; the drink swap: from sugary drinks to sugar-free or no-added-sugar drinks; the after school swap: for example from muffin to fruited teacake; and the pudding swap: for example from ice cream to low-fat lower-sugar yoghurt
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. The family challenge highlights that simple swaps could lead to big changes if sustained over time.”
