A Nation Lives By Its Stomach

Do the Hard Yards

Stupid parents load their children up with sugar.  Maybe it's because they don't love them enough to regulate their eating.  Maybe the parents are lazy and too busy with other things.  Maybe they have lost any sense of discipling and ruling the lives of their children and indulgently go with the flow.  Maybe they love sugar themselves and think that to protect their children from it would be hypocritical.  Maybe it is a combination of  "all the above".

The UK (along with most Western nations) is facing a sugar crisis.

The average five-year-old consumes the equivalent of their body weight in sugar in the course of a year, health officials have warned. Parents are being urged to take control of their children’s habits, as the Government prepares to publish its strategy on child obesity, amid calls to introduce a tax on sugary drinks and foods.  The new campaign by Public Health England (PHE) warns that five-year-olds should only be consuming the equivalent of five sugar cubes a day. On average, child are having three times their recommended maximum daily intake, which rises to six cubes for six to ten-year-olds, and seven cubes for anyone of the age of 11. The Telegraph

Five year olds should be consuming no mire than five sugar cubes daily.  Far too much.  For goodness sake.

But to address the problem means that parents needs convincing.  It means hard yards.  But no, fools think that a tax on sugary drinks and foods will do the trick.  Idiots!  That will do two things: it will justify giving kids more sugar, because the higher price represents a form of atonement, an easing of the conscience.  Parents will have "paid their dues" so to speak.  They have purchased a license to give their kids sugar.  That's why the price increases through the tax never change behaviour long term.

Secondly, it will likely lead to a realignment of food purchases in the average supermarket basket.  Other, more expensive, better food will be even rarer in the fridge.  Why?  Indulging children with what they like to eat will be the far easier route than changing the tastes of your children.  

Here is something which may help.

Officials have launched a new free app, which reveals how much sugar is in everyday food and drink in a bid to encourage parents to take control of their families’ sugar consumption.  It works by scanning the barcode of products and showing the total sugar in each product in cubes and grams.

"Moderation in all things, and let diets be balanced and diversified" is by far the best approach.  More easy and accessible measurements of food content would be useful.   Parents have a fundamental duty to ensure that such a culture is embedded in family life.  The bad consequences of not doing so are considerable:

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at PHE, said: “Children are having too much sugar, three times the maximum recommended amount. This can lead to painful tooth decay, weight gain and obesity, which can also affect children’s wellbeing as they are more likely to be bullied, have low self-esteem and miss school.” . . . . There are now 2.5 million people suffering from Type 2 diabetes, 90 per cent of whom are overweight or obese.