Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the impact of sugar on children’s health.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con)
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition undertook a
comprehensive assessment of sugar intake and health in its 2015
report Carbohydrates and Health. In 2023, it looked specifically
at children aged one to five. SACN concluded that reducing the
intake of sugar would lower the risk of tooth decay and weight
gain in children and adolescents. The Government have an
ambitious programme to reduce children’s sugar intake, which
includes the soft drinks industry levy.
(Lab)
I thank the Minister for his reply. One area where the Government
have failed to take the action they should is to encourage the
industry to reformulate food more than it is doing at the
moment—to take out sugar and substitute the alternative, organic,
healthy sweeteners that are available. Would the Government look
into this and do some more work? Would they be prepared to invite
companies that are willing to enter public/private partnerships
to start doing that?
(Con)
First, I recognise all the work the noble Lord does in this
space. Secondly, I completely agree that reformulation is the big
prize as part of this. The House will remember me mention before
that Mars, Galaxy, Bounty and Snickers have all reformulated
their food, as has Mr Kipling and his “exceedingly good”
cakes—they are compliant cakes as well. There is a lot being done
here, but there is more to do. We meet the industry all the time
and are very happy doing so.
(Con)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that, in Canada, thousands of
children have been fed on whole milk for many years, and their
problems with obesity do not exist? The food industry has
deliberately promoted a low-fat diet. It is a lousy diet that
tastes horrible; that is why they have had to shovel in such vast
quantities of sugar. Could the Minister ensure that the
Department of Health no longer advocates a low-fat diet? Fat
going into the duodenum acts on the stomach, making it empty more
slowly and therefore giving the feeling that the patient has had
enough.
(Con)
I think one of the things that, hopefully, I have learned in the
almost year that I have been answering Questions is when I know
the answer to a question and when I do not. I am afraid this is
one of the examples of the latter. I will happily look up the
Canadian example of the use of whole milk and write to the noble
Lord on it.
(CB)
My Lords, I declare my interests, as recorded in the register. I
was very pleased to hear the Minister refer to the soft drinks
industry levy, which has been a very successful way of reducing
sugar consumption in soft drinks. Therefore, do the Government
have plans to extend that levy to other products that contain a
lot of sugar? That would be a very effective way of reducing
sugar consumption.
(Con)
The noble Lord is correct; that has been a success story.
Overall, we have seen a 46% reduction of sugar, while at the same
time sales of drinks in that category have gone up by 21%—that is
60%-plus if you combine the two. We are now looking at other
moves that can help. The movement of product positioning to
remove the so-called “pester power” is a key step forward in
this. Of all the modelling that has been done, that is the thing
that it is thought will reduce calories by the most—by 96%. That
is the current focus; it has been in place for almost a year and
early evidence is that it is working, but as ever we must keep
everything under review.
(LD)
My Lords, for the 4 million children in food poverty, the quality
of their school lunch is crucial to their health and development.
But the school food standard has not been reviewed since 2014,
and nobody checks whether schools are adhering to it anyway. With
so many children going hungry, is it not time that the standard
of school food was brought up to date with the latest research on
the impact of sugar and other nutrients?
(Con)
The noble Baroness is absolutely correct. What we give children
in schools is a key thing that the Government can affect. That is
why I am delighted that the level of free school meals, at 33%,
is the highest on record, making sure that they have good
nutritious food. But the noble Baroness is correct: there was a
review taking place in 2019, which was one of the casualties of
Covid. I know that it is now one of the things that we are
thinking, as we recover from Covid, that we need to look at
again.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister has spoken passionately about reducing the
intake of sugar by younger people. Are His Majesty’s Government
intending to admit obese children with type 2 diabetes to the
two-year pilot study of the new drug Wegovy?
(Con)
My understanding—and I will confirm this afterwards—is that, to
begin with, always with these sorts of treatments, you want to
make sure that you are doing it in a safer type of environment.
Generally, having adults doing it is a better place to start.
Clearly, if that works the way we think, and we can trust that it
will work, then you have opportunities to expand beyond that. The
other thing I would like to say on this is that, actually, an
active life is very important—activity and sports are a very
important component of this. Interestingly, it has been shown
that an active life increases life expectancy by one to two
years, so that is an important feature in all this as well.
(CB)
My Lords, as a design technology teacher now teaching food
nutrition as well, can I ask whether, rather than sugars, of
which the risks are well known, the Government will update NHS
advice on ultra-processed food, particularly its website? These
seem to pose a much higher risk to health, particularly as they
are often marketed as the healthy option.
(Con)
Many noble Lords will recall the Question we had on this before.
It is the actual ingredients that are the problem.
Ultra-processed foods, in and of themselves, are not a good
definition because bread is an example of an ultra-processed
food. The problem is that many of these are high in fat, sugar
and salt, and that is what we need to be tackling. That is what
we are going after, not the definition of ultra-processed foods
per se.
(LD)
My Lords, the Minister has told us previously that the Government
are going slow on their ban on junk food advertising because they
want to give time to manufacturers to reformulate their products.
For many of us, this is disappointing because, as long as the
food continues to be advertised, there will be excessive
consumption. Could the Minister give us a progress update, so
that we can get to the point where these foods, which are bad for
health, will no longer be promoted—particularly in front of
children?
(Con)
Yes, as I mentioned previously, our modelling shows that roughly
95% of the calorific reduction that we are expecting will come
from the movement of the product positioning. The evidence,
almost at the end of the first year, is that this is working.
Effectively, the category of non-high HFSS products has gone up
by about 16% while products high in fat, sugar and salt have gone
down. We know that supermarkets are taking the lead in doing this
voluntarily, in terms of the so-called BOGOF, or “buy one get one
free”, promotions. Tesco and Sainsbury’s have already stopped
that on a voluntary basis and, as I mentioned earlier, the
companies are also reformulating their foods. There is a lot of
progress in a lot of areas.
(Lab)
My Lords, children from the most deprived areas are four times
more likely to be obese and three times more likely to have
dental decay than those in the least deprived, with sugar as a
key contributor to poor health and future prospects. Does the
Minister agree that targeting excessive sugar intake at earlier
stages will have more impact on the more deprived communities
and, if so, how do the Government propose to do this?
(Con)
Yes, the noble Baroness is absolutely correct, and that is why in
the major conditions survey we have an ambition to reduce sugar
intake by 20%, working right across the board and especially with
baby food manufacturers. As I set out earlier, there are a range
of things that we have already done: the sugar tax reduced intake
by 46%, and the movement of the so-called “pester power” has made
a big impact. We are seeing companies reformulate food. But it is
something we will keep under review, and we will do more if we
need to.
(Lab)
My Lords, I declare my interest as the president of the British
Fluoridation Society. Coming to oral health, is he alarmed at the
number of intensive dental treatments that children need because
of the rise in decay? Could he update the House on any speed up
in fluoridation schemes?
(Con)
The noble Lord is absolutely correct. As many are aware, the most
common reason for six to 10 year-olds to go into an A&E visit
is tooth decay. The noble Lord will recall that we passed an SI
quite recently expanding opportunities for water fluoridisation.
I know that is now increasing and I will happily follow up with
the detail in writing.
