UK Report Seeks to Cut Sugar Intake Targets
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) recently issued a draft
“Carbohydrates and Health” report urging Public Health England (PHE) to
halve the current population guidelines for added sugar intake.
An independent expert panel that advises government agencies on nutrition
and dietary matters, SACN created a Carbohydrates Working Group at
the request of the U.K. Food Standards Agency and Department of Health to
clarify “the relationship between dietary carbohydrates and health.” To this
end, the working group reviewed scientific literature on “the terminology,
classification and definitions of types of carbohydrates in the diet,” as well as
evidence concerning the effects of dietary carbohydrates on oral, colorectal
and cardiovascular health.
After analyzing 225 prospective cohort studies and 403 randomized
controlled trials, the working group concluded that although “total
carbohydrate intake appears to be neither detrimental nor beneficial to
cardio-metabolic health and colorectal health,” the consumption of added
sugars increases energy intake as well as body mass index. The draft report
thus recommends that regulators adopt a “free sugars” definition comprising
“all monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods by the manufacturer,
cook or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and
unsweetened fruit juices.” Noting that free sugars should not exceed 10
percent of total energy intake at an individual level, the report halves current
population-based targets by setting a dietary reference value for free sugars
“at a population average of around 5% of dietary energy for age-groups from
2.0 years upwards.” Increasing target intakes of starches, sugars contained
within the cellular structures of foods and sugars contained in milk and milk
products would offset this reduction in the population reference intake of
free sugars.
“The evidence that we have analyzed shows quite clearly that high free
sugars intake in adults is associated with increased energy intake and obesity.
There is also an association between sugar sweetened beverages and type-2
diabetes,” said SACN Carbohydrates Working Group Chair Ian McDonald. “In
children there is clear demonstration that sugar-sweetened beverages are
associated with obesity. By reducing it to 5% you would reduce the risk of all
of those things, the challenge will be to get there.”
Slated to review the report at its November 5 meeting, SACN will accept
comments on the draft scientific consultation until September 1, 2014.
See Wales Online, June 27, 2014.
Issue 529
