Reducing sugar key to reversing type 2 diabetes

Photo: File.

An eight-point plan to reverse the tide of sugar consumption has been proposed by a New Zealand health expert in a bid to address the type 2 diabetes epidemic.

Professor Grant Schofield, of Auckland University of Technology, has co-authored a report on ‘the science against sugar' alongside two leading international experts on obesity.

They are advocating the plan to reverse the epidemic within three years.

'New Zealand has the third-highest rate of obesity in the world,” says Grant. 'There is no doubt that sugar in our diet causes us harm.

'Sugar is making us fat and sick. It's rotting our children's teeth and causing a diabetes epidemic. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

'The affordability, accessibility and acceptability of sugar is one of the unsolved problems of our time. What we're offering is a focused eight-point solution to reverse the tide worldwide. It's time to treat sugar and the industry that promotes it as a public health threat.”

The recommendations include taxes on all sugary foods, labelling of sugar in teaspoons rather than grams and establishing healthy eating and physical activity as separate and independent public health goals.

The experts are also calling for a ban on sugar-fuelled loss-leading in supermarkets, sponsorship of sporting events by companies associated with sugary products, and advertising of sugary drinks on television as well as on-demand services.

In addition, it proposes government food subsidies should be discontinued and policy ought to prevent all dietetic organisations from accepting money or endorsing companies that market processed foods.

The report states that, much like tobacco, evidence of sugar being uniquely harmful to humans has been supressed for decades.

'In the sugar tax debate, sugar is seen as a small component cause of obesity and poor health,” says Grant.

'But we're arguing that sugar is a central and primary cause of our modern epidemics of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

'Reducing the amount of sugar in your diet is one of the most important health decisions that all New Zealanders can make. There is no biological requirement or nutritional value in sugar. The less you eat of it, the better.”

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