13/01/2015 - Permalink

New Change4Life campaign encourages families in Shropshire to make Sugar Swaps 

Related topics: Health

Shropshire Council’s public health team is supporting the new Change4Life Sugar Swaps campaign by encouraging parents across the county to cut down the amount of sugar their children consume by making one or more simple swaps.

The Change4Life Sugar Swaps campaign, launched this month (January 2015) until March 2015, will encourage families to make simple changes, or swaps, at key occasions in the day.  These include:

  • The Breakfast Swap: sugary cereal for plain cereal eg wholewheat biscuit cereal
  • The Drink Swap: from sugary drinks to sugar-free or no-added-sugar drinks or water
  • The After School Swap: for example from muffins to fruited teacake
  • The Pudding Swap: for example from ice cream to low-fat lower-sugar yoghurt.

Families can also register for their free Sugar Swaps pack which they will receive through the post.  The packs are filled with hints, tips and recipe suggestions designed to help parents cut down the sugary foods and drinks consumed by their children, plus money-off vouchers, swap cards and stickers.

Eating and drinking too much sugar means extra calories, which causes fat to build up inside the body.  This can lead to heart disease, some cancers or type 2 diabetes later in life.  In Shropshire 23.5% of children start school either overweight or obese; this then becomes 30.3% for those in their last year of primary school.  Children who are overweight or obese when they are young are far more likely to become overweight or obese adult, and these figures demonstrate the increasing need to address children’s diet and limit future health problems.

Sugar can also have a devastating impact upon dental health, an integral part of overall health.  Tooth decay was the most common reason for hospital admissions for children aged five to nine in 2012-13.  28% of 5-year-olds in England have tooth decay and of these, 24% have five or more teeth affected. When children are not healthy this affects their ability to learn, thrive and develop.

Karen Calder, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for health, and member of Shropshire’s Health and Well-being Board, said:

“Reducing sugar intake is so important for the health of our children both now and in the future.  We understand that taking steps to reduce sugar can be really difficult, but by taking just a few small steps to address this, we can help reduce the impact too much sugar has on the health of our children.  I really want to encourage parents and carers to take part in the Change4Life campaign.  All you need to do is to sign up to make one easy swap to cut back on sugar.”

Cathy Levy, Public Health Programme Obesity Lead, added:

“We know that parents want the best for their children, and Shropshire Council’s public health is committed to supporting children and their families to lead healthier lives.  The Change4Life’s Sugar Swaps campaign is a great way to gradually reduce children’s sugar consumption through simple achievable changes.”

To sign up and get your free pack and email support visit https://sugarswaps.change4life.co.uk/

Each person who signs up for their free pack will receive a daily email and regular texts with further advice on how to continue to reduce sugar consumption from their children’s diets.

For more information and advice on living a healthy lifestyle visit www.healthyshropshire.co.uk or call the Healthy Shropshire helpline on 0345 678 9025.

Further information 

  1. The Change4Life Sugar Swaps campaign launched on 5 January 2015 and will continue until March 2015.
  2. The campaign launched last week by Public Health England follows a new survey amongst Netmums users who were polled on their views on sugar.  The results highlight that nearly half (47%) of mums surveyed think their family has too much sugar in their diets and two thirds of mums (67%) are worried about the amount of sugar their children consume .
  3. While guidelines state that no more that 10% of a person’s daily energy or calorie intake should be made up of sugar, at present, children aged 4-10 years are consuming up to 50% more than this. Children aged 4-10 get 17% of their daily sugar from soft drinks; 17% from biscuits, buns, cakes, pastries and fruit pies, 14% from confectionery, 13% from fruit juice, and 8% from breakfast cereals.