Shock sugar content of yoghurts revealed

Apparently healthy yoghurts can come close to sending children over their daily sugar limit in a single helping, campaigners have warned.

Public Health Liverpool said its own analysis found that some yoghurts contain the equivalent of almost five sugar cubes.

NHS guidelines say children aged between four and six should have no more than 19g or five cubes of free sugar (sugar not ‘locked in’ naturally to products) a day, while sevento-10-year-olds should have no more than six cubes.

Public Health Liverpool is to highlight its findings with a media campaign across health centres, dentists’ surgeries and hospitals over the coming months.

It is also launching a roadshow tour where experts will be available to talk to care givers about healthy food choices.

The drive, which is backed by the Liverpool-based campaign group Food Active, is aimed at tackling childhood obesity in the city, where figures show around 12% of children age four to five and more than 23% of year six pupils are classed as obese.

Almost a third of five-year-olds in Liverpool have decayed, missing or filled teeth, with two children a day under the age of 10 having to be admitted to hospital to have teeth removed.

Councillor Tim Beaumont, mayoral lead for wellbeing, said: “Parents are bombarded by marketing messages that yoghurts are healthy. Some are, but many are loaded with sugar and families don’t realise how much is in them.

“We’re not trying to say ‘don’t eat that’, we’re trying to present people with information in a way that’s easy to understand, so they have a choice.

“Combined with other sugary snacks, drinks and chocolate bars, yoghurts are contributing to an alarming level of tooth decay and obesity in children.”