12 June 2014 - Campaign group: too much sugar in fizzy drinks
Traditional fizzy drinks 'contain more sugar than Coca-Cola'
Sarah Boseley (The Guardian)
Traditional and upmarket fizzy drinks such as ginger beer and cloudy lemonade contain more sugar than Coca-Cola and Pepsi, according to a new analysis.
Nearly four out of five (79%) 330ml cans of fizzy drinks contain more than six teaspoons of sugar, according to the campaign Action on Sugar, which has analysed 232 drinks sold in leading supermarkets.
The worst offenders are ginger beers, such as Old Jamaica ginger beer and Jammin sparkling ginger beer flavour drink, which have the equivalent of 13 teaspoons of sugar per 330ml serving. Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's ginger beers have 11. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have nine.
Also very high in sugar are Club Orange (12 teaspoons), Sainsbury's cloudy lemonade (11 teaspoons) and Fanta grape-flavoured drink (11 teaspoons). Other drinks which some people may chose out of an assumption that they are healthier, such as elderflower and grape juice, also exceed the sugar levels in colas.
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Facts
Sean Poulter (The Daily Mail)
Big brand and cheaper supermarket versions of Coca-Cola and Pepsi weigh in at around nine teaspoons.
That compares to six or more teaspoons typically found in eight out of ten other high street fizzy drinks.
Health campaigners who compiled the figures warn that adults and children are consuming huge quantities of hidden sugar in processed food and drink, which is fuelling obesity and poor health.
The World Health Organisation recommends a drastic cut to a maximum of about 25g a day, which equates to six teaspoons.
But Action on Sugar analysed 232 popular drinks and found that 79 per cent contained this amount of sugar in a single 330ml serving.
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Context
Sarah Boseley (The Guardian)
The UK population is still eating far too much sugar, fat and salt, with people falling short of the five-a-day fruit and vegetable portions that have been recommended by health experts.
Public Health England, releasing data for all of the UK, said it was clear that a lot more needed to be done to improve the British diet.
"The data released today provides compelling evidence that we all need to make changes to our diet to improve our health, especially for teenagers," said Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at PHE.
The sugar load of children and young people was particularly high, she said.
The UK guidance is that sugar should not exceed 11% of our total energy intake, but for children aged four to 10, it is 14.7%, rising to 15.6% for 11- to 18-year-olds. A third of that comes from sugary soft drinks and fruit juice.
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Coke answers
Rebecca Smithers (The Guardian)
Coca-Cola has announced plans to launch a new version of its bestselling soft drink with a third less sugar and a third fewer calories as part of government and industry efforts to tackle obesity.
Coca-Cola Life, first piloted in Argentina and Chile last year, is sweetened from natural ingredients rather than artificial sweeteners and will launch in the UK in the autumn. It is the first new Coca-Cola to be launched in the UK since the arrival of Coca-Cola Zero in 2006, a low-calorie version targeted at men.
The company said the new drink would help meet its pledges made under the UK government's voluntary anti-obesity drive – the responsibility deal – and would offer consumers a greater choice.
But health campaigners said the company was misleading shoppers as the new product was still laden with sugar – more than four teaspoons of sugar per 330ml can – equivalent to one quarter of a child's daily recommended maximum intake.
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12 June 2014 - Campaign group: too much sugar in fizzy drinks, La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), décembre 2014. Consulté le 21/12/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2014/12-june-2014-campaign-group-too-much-sugar-in-fizzy-drinks