Action on Sugar has been set up by the team behind Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which has pushed for cuts to salt intake since the 1990s.
Comment: Salt restriction can actually be harmful. See this article for recommendations on salt intake: Shaking up the salt myth: Healthy salt recommendations
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It believes a 20% to 30% reduction in three to five years is within reach.
Like Cash, Action on Sugar will set targets for the food industry to add less sugar bit by bit so that consumers do not notice the difference in taste.
Sugar in food
Well-known food and drink products and their sugar content:
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- Starbucks caramel frappuccino with whipped cream with skimmed milk (tall): 273kcal; 11 teaspoons of sugar
- Coca Cola Original (330ml):139kcal; 9 teaspoons of sugar
- Muller Crunch Corner Strawberry Shortcake Yogurt (135g): 212kcal; 6 teaspoons of sugar
- Yeo Valley Family Farm 0% Fat Vanilla Yogurt (150g): 120kcal; 5 teaspoons of sugar
- Kellogg's Frosties with semi-skimmed milk (30g): 4 teaspoons of sugar
- Glaceau Vitamin Water, Defence (500ml):4 teaspoons of sugar
- Heinz Classic Tomato Soup (300g):171kcals; 4 teaspoons of sugar
- Ragu Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce (200g): 80kcals; 3 teaspoons of sugar
- Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Crunchy Oat Granola Cinnamon Bars (40g): 186kcal; 2 teaspoons of sugar
- Heinz Tomato Ketchup (15ml): 18kcal; 1 teaspoon of sugar
It says the reduction could reverse or halt the obesity epidemic and would have a significant impact in reducing chronic disease in a way that "is practical, will work and will cost very little".
'Completely unnecessary'
The group listed flavoured water, sports drinks, yoghurts, ketchup, ready meals and even bread as just a few everyday foods that contain large amounts of sugar.
A favourite tactic of Cash has been to name and shame products with large quantities of salt.
Action on Sugar chairman Graham MacGregor, who is professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine and set up Cash in 1996, said: "We must now tackle the obesity epidemic both in the UK and worldwide.
"This is a simple plan which gives a level playing field to the food industry, and must be adopted by the Department of Health to reduce the completely unnecessary and very large amounts of sugar the food and soft drink industry is currently adding to our foods."
Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and science director of Action on Sugar, said: "Added sugar has no nutritional value whatsoever and causes no feeling of satiety.
"Aside from being a major cause of obesity, there is increasing evidence that added sugar increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and fatty liver."
Comment: It's not just sugar that is harmful to one's health. Carbohydrates are converted to sugar, and can cause as much as havoc as sugar does. For more information on sugar and carbohydrates see these articles:
Depression: Your brain on sugar
146 reasons why sugar destroys your health
'Carbohydrates rot the brain': Neurologist slams grains as 'silent brain killers' - and says we should be eating a high-fat diet
What's behind 'Grain Brain': Are gluten and carbs wrecking our brains and our health?
The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview
Reader Comments
Sugar in no way causes Diabetes otherwise it would have existed prior to 1933. It did not.
Diabetes is caused only by transfats as has been known since the 1950s.
The principle mechanism was discovered in the 1990s - poisoning of the mETC by TFAs.
Junk research is perpetually put out as part of a massive deception campaign. SOTT as usual falls for this.
Insulin resistance, the metabolic syndrome (which causes obesity) C20th CV disease and dementia are all DELIBERATELY caused by big pharma and the verminous lying murdering quacks so they can sell you consultations and symptom treatment.
Do not be deceived. Do not be deceived by Obamas lies on banning trans fats. He will ban partial hydrogenation and stop trans fat labelling he will NOT ban zero hydrogenation of oils.
I keep trying but the belief systems are too strong.....
Plug youselves back in and take the blue pill.....Thinking is not good for you.
I think you need to find out more about diabetes, as both sugar and diabetes existed prior to 1933. And there is increasing evidence that diet and mitochondrial dysfunction are linked and that depending on a person's genetic expression, this is what stimulates disease/dysfunction.
How about you read "The Fat Switch" by Dr Richard J Johnson or perhaps "Why We Get Fat - and what to do about it" by Gary Taubes.
To me, insulin resistance and obesity are caused by ignorance rather than deliberately by big pharma.
Diabetes did exist prior to 1933. For a diabetes expert you are not too well informed. Of course, if you were stronger in your arguments you probably would have to be so insulting. How do you explain Claude Bernard's lectures on diabetes in the mid-1800s or the fact that Dr. William Harvey cured diabetics like William Banting with a low carb diet which included lots of saturated animal fat and no sugar? The fact is that the causes and cures of disease and how to eat properly as a human have been known for some time. Evidence gets buried and becomes obscured. It's still there if you bother to look.
People who have never consumed any transfats or polyunsaturated oils have developed diabetes. Sugar and other carbs were the obvious culprit. Refined oils are a health issue but they are not as key in regard to diabetes as carbs and sugar.