Swap while you shop

News from our partners Public Health England

New campaign launched to get families in the West Midlands making healthy swaps in January 

A new Change4Life campaign launched by Public Health England today will encourage families in the West Midlands to make one easy swap to help cut sugar and fat from their everyday snacks, drinks and meals this month (January 2014). 

Change4Life’s Smart Swaps TV advertising will focus on swapping sugary drinks to diet, sugar free or milk, as it’s revealed that by doing so, an average family could save up to three quarters of a 1kg bag of sugar over four weeks. 

While milk and dairy products are great sources of protein and calcium, families looking to make healthier choices could also swap whole milk for semi-skimmed milk, potentially saving up to a third of a pint of fat over four weeks. 

The Smart Swaps campaign is launched as the latest data, from the 2012/13 National Child Measurement Programme, shows that more than a third (36 per cent) of children aged 10-11 in the West Midlands carry excess weight. (see “Source” for the source)

As part of the campaign, a Change4Life roadshow will be visiting the West Midlands to help inspire families who want to make healthy changes this January.  The roadshow, which will feature live cookery demonstrations and interactive games for the family, will be coming to the Bullring Shopping Centre, Birmingham on Saturday 18 January 2014. 

Those who sign up to the campaign are able to choose from five simple Smart Swaps: 

• Sugary drinks to diet, sugar free or no added sugar drinks or to milk or water
• Cheese to reduced fat cheese
• Butter to lower fat butters or spreads
• Sugary cereal to low sugar cereal eg plain whole wheat cereal biscuits, plain shredded whole grain or plain porridge
• Whole milk to semi-skimmed; or semi-skimmed to 1% fat or skimmed milk. 

Dr Lola Abudu, public health consultant for PHE West Midlands, said:

“Figures from the National Child Measurement Programme show that more needs to be done to help local families cut out certain unhealthy elements of their diet, in order to improve their health. 

“Swapping like-for-like food in your diet could help you cut out surprising levels of fat, sugar and ultimately calories.  We’re committed to doing as much as possible to support families to make these swaps.” 

Adverts will run on TV, radio and online highlighting the shocking amounts of sugar in everyday food and drinks, including 52 sugarcubes in a two-litre bottle of pop. 

By signing up to the Smart Swaps campaign, people will receive a free Smart Swapper pack full of tasty, healthier meal ideas, fun fridge magnets and money-off vouchers.  A free Smart Recipes app is also available, bursting with quick, healthy recipes, which can be downloaded from iTunes and GooglePlay. 

Public Health England has announced £840,000 worth of vouchers, provided by commercial partners, for those who sign up to the campaign, including money off sugar free drinks and hundreds of offers on healthier products at thousands of Aldi, Lidl, Asda and The Co-operative Food stores across the country. 

Ainsley Harriott, Change4Life ambassador, said:

“You’d be surprised about the amount of sugar and saturated fat you could cut from your diet just by swapping a few simple things – you won’t even notice the difference.  The Smart Swaps campaign has so many ideas for swaps and recipes, there has never been a better time to make a healthier change to your diet than now.” 

People can sign up and choose their swaps by searching Change4Life online.

Further information 

1. Smart Swaps is a registered trade mark of the Licensor and is used under licence. 
2. The amount of sugar cubes in sugary drinks has been calculated based on the average sugar content of the top 10 selling sugary fizzy / carbonated drinks.  The amount of sugar has been divided by 3.1 as one of the leading brands of sugar cubes is the Silver Spoon sugar cube which has 3.1g of sugar.  Data collected October 2013.  
3. The fat savings for milk has been calculated by taking 1) average times the product is purchased, multiplying that by 2) average weight of the product purchased, then multiplying the answer by 3) average fat saved for the product.  
4. Monthly sugar and fat savings have been calculated based on purchases by a sample of 2.9 million families over four weeks. Source: Kantar 2013. 
5. Public Health England’s mission is to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities through working with national and local government, the NHS, industry and the voluntary and community sector. PHE is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health.