Action on Sugar fights for reduced sugar in foods to curb obesity and diabetes

Campaigning group Action on Sugar is urging for realistic steps to be taken to steadily reduce the high levels of added sugar in many commonly eaten foods and hold back the tide of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The amount of sugar added to common every day foods, such as breads, soups and cereals has grown considerably in recent decades. Prepared sauces and ready meals, which have become a common part of UK diets within the last two decades, can also harbour significant quantities of sugar. Recent research suggests that Britons daily consumption of added sugars is 60g per day.
The group, Action on Sugar, includes 25 scientific experts and has previously campaigned for reductions in salt in foods, under the name Consensus Action on salt and Health. The group is urging for the level of ‘hidden sugars’ to be reduced by 20 to 30% within the next 5 years and is challenging the Department of Health to carry out this goal.
The group has called food companies’ policy of adding sugar unnecessary and excessive and motivated by profit over health. Too much sugar in the diet is viewed as a major cause of the UK’s growing average waistlines and the rapidly growing rates of type 2 diabetes across the nation.
The health experts believe significant reductions in sugar intake will be required to help in the prevention of type 2 diabetes and other health conditions linked to obesity, including heart disease and cancer.