Sugar trap children's drinks: 80% above the recommended daily limit!

Sugar trap children's drinks: 80% above the recommended daily limit!

Österreich - Current tests show alarming results regarding the sugar content in children's drinks. According to an examination, eight out of ten tested children's drinks contain excessive amounts of sugar, many of which are far above the values recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). This results in an average value of 24 grams of sugar per pack, which corresponds to more than six pieces of cube sugar. It becomes particularly drastic for drinking packages and bubble teas that can contain up to 60 grams of sugar per pack and thus the daily recommended sugar for children exceed triple.

The WHO recommends that less than 5% of the daily energy supply come from sugar, which corresponds to around 19 grams per day for four to seven year olds. However, most children's drinks exceed these recommendations massively. Fruit juices often contain even more sugar than lemonades, which poses great challenges for parents who are looking for healthy options for their children. It becomes increasingly clear that products that are advertised with "healthy" advertising promises, such as added vitamins, are often high sugar traps.

Health risks due to excessive sugar consumption

The health risks of high sugar consumption in childhood are serious. Obesity and obesity are among the most common consequences. In Austria, 34% of the boys and 26% of girls in elementary school are overweight, while 16% of the boys and 8% of girls are considered to be obese. These figures illustrate the urgency to take measures to reduce sugar in the nutrition of children.

The organization Foodwatch therefore calls for comprehensive measures to combat this problem. This includes, among other things, a "cracker tax" that is supposed to boost consumption behavior, a ban on advertising for unhealthy foods to children and a mandatory Nutri score identification for food. In addition, Foodwatch calls for an age limit for the sale of Energy Drinks to protect the health of the younger generation. Miriam Maurer from Foodwatch Austria critically comments on industry: she sees a profit -controlled motif situation that urges the health of the children into the background.

recommendations for sugar reduction

In order to reduce the sugar consumption of children, specialist societies such as the Espghan recommend that the proportion of free sugar in children and adolescents should be limited to less than 5% of the daily energy supply. This is in accordance with the WHO guidelines, which were also formulated for Switzerland. Likewise, the main drink for children should be water while sweetened drinks should be avoided.

According to a survey from Switzerland, children and adolescents consume more sugar than recommended, which can not only lead to obesity, but also to further health problems such as type 2 diabetes and malnutrition. The Federal Office for Food Safety and other health authorities are required to start information campaigns and to improve food marking in order to reduce sugar consumption among the population.

The urgency of this topic is underpinned by the complete lack of current data for the sugar intake of children in Austria. The last comprehensive survey already dates from 2012, which is a clear gap in the data basis for political measures. In addition to the Enlightenment, it is crucial to make structural changes in the area of food advertising and identification in order to protect the health of future generations.

summarized, the data collected not only show the questionable amounts of sugar in children's drinks, but also illustrate the urgently needed measures to reduce sugar consumption Kleine Zeitung , to which the public and politics have to react. The health of our children is at stake, and a joint effort is urgently necessary.

Further information and recommendations can be found in the detailed reports on the website of the Bundesag href = "https://www.paediatrieschweiz.ch/zuckerkonsum-kinder-jugendlichen-status-quo-und-fehmungen/"> Pädiatrie Switzerland .