Change4Life campaign launched around children’s snacking

A new Change4Life campaign has been launched to encourage parents to 'look for 100-calorie snacks, two a day max' to cut children’s sugar intake.

This is because half of children’s sugar intake, currently around seven sugar cubes a day, comes from unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks, leading to obesity and dental decay.

Each year children are consuming almost 400 biscuits, more than 120 cakes, buns and pastries, around 100 portions of sweets, nearly 70 of both chocolate bars and ice creams, washed down with over 150 juice drink pouches and cans of fizzy drink.

Public Health England’s improved Change4Life ‘Food Scanner’ app also shows parents how many calories, sugar, salt and saturated fat is in their food to help make healthier choices easier. It can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

With a third of children leaving primary school overweight or obese, tackling obesity requires wider action and is not just limited to individual efforts from parents. PHE is working with the food industry to cut 20% of sugar from the products children consume most by 2020, with work to reduce calories due to start in 2018.

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