PUBLIC Health England plans to kick off 2016 by taking a tougher stance on sugar, as it has released a smartphone app for parents to measure sugar content more accurately.


Dr Geoff Jolliffe Dr Geoff Jolliffe, clinical chairman for NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group said: "Sugar is a major cause of obesity and that can lead to diabetes, heart disease, strokes and countless other health complications. You have to be aware that it is difficult to reverse the effects of sugar once the damage is done."

Public Health England has launched its Change4Life campaign to try and illustrate to parents just how much sugar is consumed by their children and how bad it really is for them. Their studies have proved that on average children aged four to 10 years old consume the equivalent of 5,500 sugar cubes each year. Added up, this is 22kg of sugar which is actually more than the weight of an average five-year-old child.

Having tested out the app, which is simply called Sugar Smart I found that it is straightforward, easy to use and free to download. You simply scan the barcode of the food you are checking and the app will calculate its sugar content. There are quite a few surprises when you download the app, a chocolate bar as small as a KitKat contains almost three whole sugar cubes, a tin of Heinz Baked Beans contains five sugar cubes and one litre of Asda Florida Orange Juice contains a staggering 25 cubes of sugar in each bottle.

The app covers more than 75,000 products and is adding more all the time. As I conducted my research on the product I found that there are still products the app does not recognize, but these are usually products aimed at the adult market, such as salad dressings or low-calorie soups. It is best used for everyday children's snacks and food that will appeal to young people, whether it is a Munch Bunch yogurt or a Mars Bar.

However, the app could still come in handy for adults as even when we look at the calorie content and nutritional value on the back of a drinks can or packet of crisps we never fully absorb just how much sugar we are consuming ourselves. A large can of energy drink such as Monster or Red Bull contains almost 13 cubes of sugar. This does provide the promised shot of energy but at the same time is terribly damaging for teeth and a major source of weight gain too.

The campaign aims to educate children and parents and show them the extensive damages of too much sugar. Childhood obesity is still on the rise and a major cause of this is the amount of sugar contained in foods.

Obese children are more prone to illness and fatigue and can therefore be forced to take more time off school. Obesity or too much sugar can lead to serious, life-long problems like type 2 diabetes and tooth decay.

Of course if you have a young family and are juggling the weekly shop with work and all sorts of after school activities it can be difficult to research the healthiest snacks to pack up for your children, but this is where the quick and easy app comes in useful.

Gayle Cook, Manager of the Old Vicarage Day Nursery on Hartington Street in Barrow, said: "I definitely think it's a good idea to have an app that can accurately tell you the exact sugar content of something before you buy it. I don't think a lot of people realize just how much sugar things have in them so it really comes as a surprise when they find out how much sugar is in their child's food. 

"We have snack times at nursery and each day the parents send food in. We actually have a no chocolate policy because we are very aware of childhood obesity and want to do all we can to keep the children at our nursery healthy. It's also not fair if one child has a bunch of grapes or crackers and the child sitting next to him has a Mars Bar.

"Another important thing I think parents need to be more aware of is the sugar in acidic fruits. It is so bad for children's teeth and can be almost as unhealthy as chocolate. Oranges are very acidic and I know those little boxes of raisins contain a lot of sugar.

"It is difficult to plan healthy meals for children but something like a banana is great because it isn't acidic and it gives a natural boost of energy. It should be just as easy to pick up a banana for snack time as it is to grab a chocolate bar."

Possibly the easiest and fastest way to cut down on your child's sugar intake is through cutting out fizzy drinks. Soft drinks like Coca Cola and Fanta are some of the worst perpetrators for sugar but juices like orange or apple juice or even Innocent Smoothies are almost as damaging for the teeth. The best choices are always water or semi-skimmed milk and if you really need to add something then choose a cordial such as 'Robinsons be Natural' and just add a small amount.

What we discovered when we tested the Sugar Smart app in a Barrow supermarket

WE tested out the Sugar Smart app on all of our favourite soft drinks. When you head in to the supermarket to pick up a refreshing beverage you can now stop to think exactly how many little cubes of sugar you are ingesting in just a few gulps.


What is most surprising is that certain brands of flavoured water and juices, which are masquerading as healthy alternatives to fizzy drinks are also very high in sugar. This is what we discovered:

One can of Red Bull 355ml - 9.8 sugar cubes (39.2 total grams of sugar)

One bottle of Dr Pepper 500ml - 12.9 sugar cubes (51.6g)

One bottle of Lipton Ice Tea Peach 500ml - 8.5 sugar cubes (34g)

One can of Coca Cola 355ml - 9 sugar cubes (35g)

One bottle of Oasis Citrus Punch 375ml - 3.8 sugar cubes (15.2g)

One bottle of Lilt 500ml - 5.8 sugar cubes (23.2g)

One bottle of Volvic Touch of Fruit Water - 10.3 sugar cubes (41.2g)

One carton of Vita Coco 100 per cent Pure Coconut Water - 4.1 sugar cubes (16.4g)

One bottle of Innocent Pure Fruit Smoothie - 6.6 sugar cubes (26.4g)

Possibly the most shocking finds are the Volvic flavoured water and the Innocent fruit smoothie. The Innocent smoothie was also notably smaller than all of the other drinks.

Regarding sweet treats it is a good idea to stick to Public Health England's recommended guidelines for your child's sugar intake. The daily guidelines are:

Age 4-6 years: 19g of sugar per day (five sugar cubes)

Age 7-10 years: 24g of sugar per day (six sugar cubes)

Age 11+: 30g of sugar per day (seven sugar cubes)

To get an idea of how much sugar is in the most decadent of treats we measured a couple of the products that are most loved by children:

One small Kinder Chocolate Bar 21g - 2.8 sugar cubes (11.2g)

One tub of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Core Ice Cream (500ml) - 27.5 sugar cubes (110g)

Download the app