How much sugar are you feeding your family without even knowing it?

Sugar has been cast as the villain of the 21st century. It has been blamed for causing everything from cancer to diabetes to obesity.

According to Public Health England, the average adult gets through more than twice the recommended amount of sugar, while teenagers are eating more than three times what they should.

The problem is many people do not realise how much they are eating, says the head of campaign group Action on Sugar, Professor Graham MacGregor.

“Most of it is hidden in processed foods,” he says. “People don’t realise the industry is shoving sugar into everything to, first of all, make us addicted to it and secondly, because it’s the cheapest ingredient you can put in.”

To highlight the problem we asked ­Caroline Botterill, 35, married to Brad, 44, and mum to sons Matthew, 14, Jacob, five, and Thomas, four, to keep a diary of what they ate for one week.

“I do worry about the boys’ health, especially my eldest, Matthew,” she says. “He tends to put weight on easily. When he was eight, he was hungry all the time and if you didn’t give him food he’d have a paddy. I worried he was diabetic.”

A blood test gave Matthew the all clear, but Caroline, from Worthing in West Sussex, says it was around then she became aware of sugar.

“Anything for children seems to be packed with sugar,” she says. “I won’t buy cola or energy drinks.”

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Diet Doctor Andreas Eenfeldt has also highlighted this story

http://www.dietdoctor.com/how-much-sugar-are-you-feeding-your-family-without-even-knowing-it

All the best Jan

Sometimes when talking about diet and healthy eating, I tell people I know they are on a 60% plus sugar diet. They look at me as if I am nuts (can't say I blame them) then I tell them to Wiki carbohydrates. They are usually astonished to realise how much sugar they eat. The campaigns warning about sugar are taking hold, but people need to realise the damage highly processed carbs are doing to their health.

Quite! The Government RDA is for 230 - 300g carbs including 60 - 90g "sugar", all to stop us eating those arterycloggingsaturatedfats but actually because carbs and especially sugar are CHEAP and can be sold expensive with a LOW FAT!!! sticker. And yet arteries are becoming MORE clogged as a result of the ensuing "epidemics" of obesity and diabetes, and soon Alzheimer's will be on the menu too.

All the science is out there but there are too many people whose income and job security depends on NOT reading it.