Sweeteners
That’s shadowed by more direct interventions, with bureaucrats prodding manufacturers to cut the amount of sugar they funnel into foods. But without specific, mandatory limits on the white stuff, can change ever be permanent? And with the UK being only one of the countries serene with using sugar everywhere from tea to breakfast cereals, is a deeper cultural shift needed, too?
Something’s rotten Though he’s thousands of miles away and talking over a web camera, it’s clear that Professor Graham MacGregor is not a happy man. A professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London and chairman of the Action on Sugar charity, MacGregor is complaining about the lack of official action against sugar consumption – and he doesn’t mince his words. “We have a useless government, which you’ve probably read about,” is how he vividly puts it. “It has failed miserably in doing anything.” Fundamentally, MacGregor’s frustration can be understood from a policy perspective. In 2018, a so-called ‘sugar tax’ was introduced in the UK, obliging retailers to slap an extra £0.18 charge on litre-sized drinks containing 5 to 8g of sugar per 100ml. The even more sugary drinks faced an even steeper levy. For MacGregor’s part, he saw the law as “successful” – a point apparently bolstered by the statistics. As research by the University of Oxford notes, the 2018 rules resulted in drink manufacturers tweaking their ingredients and cutting the amount of sugar in their products to avoid higher costs. In turn, this had a positive impact on consumption with the average household cutting their sugar intake of 30g per week according to research from NDPH. Yet as MacGregor’s irritation implies, little has been achieved since then. While the government introduced voluntary 20% targets to cut sugar in food, lack of enforcement has seen progress stagnate; a recent drop in sales measured at just 3.5%. All the while, says Jane DeVille-Almond, sugar is having an insidious effect on millions up and down the country. That’s clear, argues the president of the British Obesity Society, from a shockingly young age. “Most children who are obese at five end up being obese adults,” she explains. “And if the parents have made them obese in the first place, the likelihood is that they’re obese too. Right from early childhood, sugar is bad for you.”
Combined with the abiding power of sugar through adulthood – studies have found that conditioning can make it very hard for people to dump the substance from their diets – it’s hard to disagree. In a place like the UK, the worst impact of this has been the rise in type 2 diabetes; although, notes MacGregor,
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com 67
that’s hardly surprising when 60% of the population is overweight.
Then there are the wider consequences of sugar. For example, consider the US, where scientists uncovered that too much sucrose can lead to depression. It’s a similar story in Germany, where sugar consumption can apparently be correlated with anxiety.
Above: The UK is a nation of sugar lovers, but has our sweet tooth gone rotten?
Below: The 2018 ‘sugar tax’ put an extra levy on fizzy drinks with high sugar content.
“We have a useless government, which you’ve probably read about. It has failed miserably in doing anything.”
Professor Graham MacGregor
Chewing the fat Certainly, it’d be wrong to say that the powers-that- be – even MacGregor’s “useless government” in Whitehall – are unmoved by these dangers. Over recent decades, health ministries across Europe and North America have attempted to cut sugar
Mihai_Andritoiu; Ground Picture/
Shutterstock.com
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