Suffolk nutritionist calls for better education around sugar in food
The Health Survey for England reported the average Brit consumes 83% more sugar than the UK-recommended allowance
Last updated 5th Feb 2023
Suffolk nutritionist is calling for people to be better educated about food and its sugar content as well as a better understanding of how our emotions contribute to our eating habits.
This follows the Health Survey for England which revealed the average Brit consumes 83% more sugar than the UK recommended allowance.
Survey Results
Over a quarter if adults in England are obese. Here 'obese' is defined by having a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30+
And nearly 40% of adults in England are overweight but not obese. Here 'over weight' is defined by having a BMI between 25-30.
The survey also found that men are more likely than women to be overweight or obese..
Men: Nearly 70% ( (68.6%)
Women: Nearly 60% o( 59.0%).
People aged 45-74 are most likely to be overweight or obese.
Melanie Stride Noble a registered associate nutritionist told us we need to invest in exploring people's relationships with food.
"There's lots of emotion tied up in food. For many people and it isn't as simple as just going on a diet to make the changes that they want to make.
"Together we explore what the choices are that they are making and why they are making them and then try to put some support in place and give them some tools to help them achieve the goals that they want to achieve."
Melanie also told us about other areas she thinks need improving.
Labelling
"I think we're still not clear on labelling, if you are really interested in nutrition or you've got the time to look through all the ingredients on the back of a label, then you can probably make sense of a lot of it.
"But we hide the word sugar under many different guises in an ingredients label.
"We're not clear on it at all, not everyone has to adhere to the traffic light system on food products.
Education
Melanie told us more needs to be done so people can better understand packaging as well as how food affects us.
People need to be taught where to access information and what it is they need to learn. 'we need to be making sure we can get the message out to everybody.'
Accessibility and advertising
Melanie commented on how sugary items can be easily found by the tills and many 'unhealthy' things are marketed toward children
"We need to limit the advertising and promoting of ultra-processed foods, especially to younger generations so that these behaviours don't become intrinsic to them at this young age so that they can't move away from it into adulthood."
Melanie also believes the cost of living crisis is affecting peoples eating habits.
"The cost of living crisis is affecting what people chose to eat.
"If a ready meal is what some people can afford.. then that is going to be a choice they have to make to feed themselves and their families...
"It's a really sad state that we're in as a country that there's a demographic of people who are finding it so hard to feed themselves because of the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables and meat."
Melanie told us how sugar can impact our health.
- Inflammation
- High glucose levels - Too much glucose can cause thickening and stiffening to our arteries over time, which will lead to an increased risk of heart diseases, such as heart attacks and stroke.
- Mental Health problems such as depression
- Poor Gut health - People can get a 'leaky gut'. This is where proteins are able to pass out of the stomach and into the bloodstream and this can impact our health through autoimmune conditions, migraines, skin complaints, chronic fatigue etc .
- Type 2 Diabetes.
Once conditions are established if you are still not managing your sugar intake the condition can wors