PARENTS are being asked to “make a swap when you next shop” to help reduce their children’s sugar intake from some everyday food and drinks.

Startling new figures show that children have already exceeded the maximum recommended sugar intake for an 18 year old by the time they reach their tenth birthday. Figures also show that children are still consuming around eight excess sugar cubes each day, equivalent to around 2,800 excess sugar cubes per year.

Public Health England’s latest Change4Life campaign is showing families how easy it is to cut back on sugar by making a few simple swaps.

Example swaps include:

• a higher-sugar yoghurt (e.g. split-pot) for a lower sugar one

• a sugary juice drink for a no-added sugar juice drink

• a higher-sugar breakfast cereal for a lower sugar cereal

Colin Cox, Cumbria County Council’s director of public Health, said:

“In some areas of Cumbria we’re seeing more overweight and obese children at reception and onto year six, this then goes on into adulthood and two in three adults in Cumbria are now classed as being overweight."

More information is available on www.cumbria.gov.uk and by searching Change4Life online