FOCUSING too much on reducing sugar intake may detract from a need to cut down on fat, experts have warned.

It comes after a study found that the calories consumed by overweight or obese people are more likely to come from fat. Researchers from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow said the critical message should be for people to cut down on overall calories.

Co-lead author and institute director, Jill Pell, said: “If focusing attention on sugar results in people compensating by eating more crisps, then we will fail to combat obesity.”

The dangers of constantly highlighting specific food groups that are supposedly “good” or “bad” is a bugbear for Kirkby GP Dr Arabella Onslow.

Dr Onslow knows the risks of obesity and being overweight, not only from her medical background, but having herself lost 10 stones several years ago.

She said: “The problem is that we keep trying to find a single thing we can eat or cut out, but it’s about balance. We need to stop polarising.

“At the end of the day, it’s like going on a car journey and saying, ‘I’m only going to turn left because I crashed last time I turned right’. We can’t just take a single rule and apply it to life.

“We’re constantly looking for this 'holy grail' but the solution is balance, not ingredient.”

A good rule of thumb, Dr Onslow added, is that the more natural people’s meals are, the healthier they will be. Processed or “beige” foods are likely to hold a combination of three main ingredients used to give them flavour - salt, sugar and fat.

Dr Onslow added: “I don’t think people even realise that refined carbohydrates are sugar. Savoury biscuits probably have as much sugar as sweet ones, you just don’t think of it that way.

“The food industry is designed to sell products, so if you take away a certain one of those three key flavour elements, they’re likely just to re-balance that with the others. The closer something is to its pure ingredients, and the less processed it is, first of all, you know what’s in it but, second of all, it will naturally be more balanced.”

Researchers for the latest paper examined data from more than 130,000 people across the UK, who completed diet questionnaires and had their measurements taken at a clinic. Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the study found that 66 per cent of the men and 52 per cent of the women involved were overweight or obese.

Researchers found that the strongest predictors of body mass index were total calories consumed and calories from fat. Compared with normal weight people, those who were overweight or obese obtained a higher proportion of their calories from fat but a lower proportion from sugar.

The news comes ahead of the government’s Childhood Obesity Strategy, which is expected to be published at some point over the summer. Earlier this year, ministers announced that they would be introducing a levy on sugary drinks from 2018.

The tax, unveiled by George Osborne as part of the Budget in March, is expected to raise more than £520m. They money will be used to double the amount of funding for sport in every primary school, with secondary schools encouraged to offer more sport as part of longer school days.