BAN FRUIT JUICE AT DINNER TIME

Health experts’ warning to parents over danger of sweet drinks

PARENTS should ban juice from the dinner table, experts warned yesterday. Children should be given only water or milk and should not expect sweet drinks all the time, according to senior government advisers.

They point out that fruit juices are helping fuel sharp rises in obesity rates, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

A typical teenager consumes 40 per cent more sugar than they should. Adults take in 13 per cent too much.

The advisers say that, while most parents understand fizzy drinks are harmful, many wrongly believe that fruit juice is healthy.

Professor Tom Sanders, head of diabetes and nutritional sciences at King’s College London, said smoothies should be given only as a treat.

‘It’s not a good idea to wean people on the habit of expecting sweet beverages all the time,’ he said. ‘Kids should be getting their fluid from drinking water.

‘We need to reintroduce the habit of people putting a jug of water on the table and drinking water with their food instead of some sort of fruity beverage. Don’t put pop on the table.’

In a study published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, researchers warned that orange juice is potentially as bad as sugary, sweetened drinks. A 250ml serving contains 115 calories – or seven teaspoons of sugar. A can of full-fat Coke has 139 calories. Some experts want the Government to stop classing juice as one of our ‘fivea-day’ portions of fruit and vegetables.

Susan Jebb, an expert in diet and population health at Oxford University, said that parents should ban all sweetened

drinks in favour of water and milk. The professor, who is the Government’s chief adviser on obesity, added: ‘I’d prefer to get sugar out of drinks altogether; a shift to low or no calorie drinks, and preferably water.

‘The main sources of sugar in the diet are sugar-sweetened beverages.

‘Milk is fine, low fat milk is fine – but that should be the mainstay of our advice.

‘The very simple advice for parents is to encourage your children to drink water.

‘Once they’ve been weaned, children ought to be drinking water.’

The warnings come ahead of the publication tomorrow of a report by Public Health England that is expected to call for a tax on soft drinks.

The Government body responsible for tackling obesity is likely to recommend a levy of up to 20 per cent – raising the price of a 40p can of Coke to 48p and a 2.5litre carton of fruit juice from £2.50 to £3.

The Government is expected to reject this advice and last week the Health Secretary insisted there were no plans for a sugar tax. Jeremy Hunt said the food industry was successfully lowering sugar levels in products voluntarily under the Government’s responsibility deal with firms. But experts have criticised the scheme, saying it is not doing enough to combat rising obesity rates.

Nearly a quarter of adults are considered obese – a proportion that is expected to rise to a half by 2050.

Also tomorrow, the Government’s scientific advisory committee on nutrition will publish guidelines on sugar limits. Current recommendations state it should be no more than 12 and 13 teaspoons of sugar a day although the experts may conclude we should aim for much less. Only l ast week t he Government announced that school milk would be provided for all pupils in the hope of slashing consumption of fizzy drinks and fruit juice. It will be free for the under-fives but older pupils will be charged.