No sweet surrender
BMJ 2005; 330 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.330.7495.853-a (Published 07 April 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;330:853
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Imre Loefler is right.Excess of sugar (sucrose)poses a serious health
risk, to counter which a global preventive campaign is surely
indicated.The object would be to reduce the consumption of all refined
carbohydrates.
There will be opposition from powerful invested interests not least
of which will be the public's "Sweet tooth". This leads me to one of the
most obvious problems--dental disease.Here, our response in the U.K. is,
sadly, to embark on a vast and expensive expansion of dental repair
services. A preventive approach seems to have been abandoned.
But, much worse is to come as the complications of obesity and
diabetes begin to take their toll.Before long, patients will begin to
demand (in addition to gastric reduction surgery and vascular
reconstruction ) renal dialysis and transplantation of the pancreas and
kidney. (Diabetes is now the commonest cause of renal failure in the
U.K.). How will our struggling N.H.S. cope then?
Unfortunately, most patients have no interest in changing their life-
styles.All they want is a tablet or an operation (however large)which will
enable them to carry on with the way of life which they enjoy.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
avoiding sugar
A large part of the sugar in our diet comes from sweetened drinks.
Bottled water is the greatest scam in developed countries. Oddly, it may be a reason for the increase in sweetened drinks. I travel a great deal and often find when I wish to buy a cold drink, that bottled water is more expensive than sweetened drinks. I would be quite happy with tap water, but there are fewer drinking fountains and taps available to the travelling public as councils assume we carry bottled and the tenants in shopping malls want us to purchase bottled water or soft drinks. Fast food outlets selling salty food offer litre containers or "bottomless" cups of sweet drinks.
New Zealanders are better catered for - Kiwis inform me that display cases of cool drinks show artificially sweetened alternatives for every flavour. Australians have fewer choices because
i) we have a sugar cane industry and
ii)the multinationals have been very effective at dissuading shopkeepers from stocking locally made products.
Darwin provides another good example as all schools provide chilled water dispensers in classrooms and these are also prominent in museums and other public places.
The profliferation of sweet drinks causes children and adults to expect drinks to be sweet. Even "no sugar added" fruit drinks are doctored by having syrupy apple juice added.
Bottom line - all restaurants should be required to provide free water on request, councils, tourist attractions and malls must bring back drinking fountains. How many offered water at their last catered meeting?
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests