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"Please tell me that sugar is not the devil"
Australia on the back foot in the food wars
Dr Rosemary Morgan
July 23, 2023
"Please tell me that sugar is not the devil"
A patient asked me to do this the other day. I went on to tell her that in fact it is the devil and that there is nothing good about sugar as far as the human body is concnerned, apart from the taste. I’m fond of plain speaking these days.
Meanwhile this popped up and got me thinking.
Healthy Food Environments and Tooth decay🧵
New law on the restriction on high fat, sugar and salt products to be introduced in Wales will help in the fight against tooth decay 🌟🍬🦷
— Dr Jessica Holloway (@JessyTheDentist)
11:59 AM • Jun 29, 2023
Can we imagine this happening in Australia in our lifetime?
Wales is about to introduce restrictions on the promotion of foods high in fat, sugar and salt, the detail is here and it brings it into line with England’s legislation.
When I did some research to see what was hapening in our Land Down Under, I found this.
And here is a screenshot of recent government activities.
This was also prominent from the Australian Association of Convenience Stores
Regulations that would restrict volume promotions on High Fat Salt & Sugar (HFSS) products in stores are rumoured to be removed from the upcoming legislation.
MPs have hinted that the restriction on volume promotions could be scrapped to help consumers struggling with the rising cost of living.
The Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) has been approached for comment on the rumoured changes.
In response to the speculation, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) chief executive James Lowman said: “Our members are telling us that customers are watching every penny, so now is not the time to put new legislation in place that makes feeding families more expensive. Scrapping the ban on ‘buy-one-get-one’ deals and other promotions would help retailers to deliver value for customers in stores.”
“We are also urging the Government to rethink whether to continue with location restrictions. These measures are complex, unnecessary and expensive to implement, and retailers tell us that they cannot just absorb the cost as they are dealing with increased costs in every area of their businesses.”
Mostly what I found when researching this topic were articles and promotion from agencies and companies assisting and advising retailers/ the food industry as to how to combat the negative effects of similar proposed changes to legislation in Australia.
Interestingly, the George Institute, an Australian independent medical research institute provided a report to the UK.
There were some renewed activites from the AMA in April this year. The most recent publicly mentioned comments from the ADA date back to January last year, with this statement:
Daily, we encounter a population that is increasingly obese and unhealthy. Anecdotally, the caries rates in children seem to be increasing. And yet I feel that, as dentists, it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day and the technical, rather than being real advocates for change.
In the face of such strong lobbying from the food industry, it is up to us to educate and motivate our patients on a individual basis every day; explaining to them that sugar truly is the devil.
Sugar is the next tobacco without a doubt, and the industry should be scared. It should be taxed, just like tobacco and like anything else that can, frankly, destroy lives.
Have a great week and please share this with a friend
Rosie
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