Hey, here’s another draconian diet metric that health officials want you to follow! According to the British Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, sugar should constitute only five percent of your diet – and not just added sugar, all sugar, including sugar from fruit. Ha ha ha WHAT.
It apparently took the SACN seven years to determine that excessive sugar consumption contributes to tooth decay and obesity, which is the main rationale for this advice. I’m trying to think – seven years ago was 2013, and I was 21. Yeah, I had definitely known that sugar intake can contribute to tooth decay and obesity for at least ten years at that point.
Anyway, the SACN and advocacy organization Action for Sugar are challenging the British government to put the health of the people ahead of the interests of the beverage industry, who they say are to blame for excessive British (and let’s be real, American) consumption of sugar. The Department of Health said that they’re accepting the recommendation as part of their upcoming strategy on childhood obesity, but that they won’t, as asked, be considering a tax on sugar.
Meanwhile, everyone else can just add this to the ever-growing list of disparate health recommendations to worry about our lack of viable ability to follow. That or we can just eat food, live our lives, and remember to brush and floss at least twice a day. Your call!
[The Guardian]Original by Rebecca Vipond Brink