National Diet and Nutrition Survey: time trend and income analyses for Years 1 to 9
Public Health England release National Diet and Nutrition Survey results from 2008 to 2017 assessing time and income trends for diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status for the UK.
Read full details from Public Health England, here
As a percentage of total energy, free sugars intake in children significantly decreased over time. Adults also showed a reduction in free sugars, although this was smaller than for children. Despite these decreases, average intakes exceeded the current recommendation of no more than 5% of total energy from free sugars in all age/sex groups over the whole 9 years.
Free sugars intakes as a percentage of energy decreased with income in adults but not in younger children (under 11 years), these changes were small and not significant in all age/sex groups. The percentage consuming fruit juice increased with income while the percentage consuming sugar-sweetened soft drinks decreased with income. In most age groups and for every £10,000 increase in equivalised income, the percentage consuming sugar-sweetened soft drinks decreased significantly for children aged 4 to 10 years and girls aged 11 to 18 years.
Over the nine years there was a downward trend in consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks in all age groups.
Registered Nutritionist Katharine Jenner, Campaign Director at Action on Sugar based at Queen Mary University of London (Quoted in the Daily Mail) says:
“The reduction in sugar consumption is thanks to the combined effort of health officials, the industry and schools coming together to agree there’s a problem and make a change. The sugar tax will have made an impact because, as well as there being less sugar in the drinks, it also has a halo effect of letting people know the drinks are unhealthy. Not everyone will have known how bad they are for you and putting a tax on them sends a very clear message to the public.”
