Here’s why
Child obesity has become an “urgent problem” health officials from public health England (PHE) have warned. Popular chocolate bars could be reduced in size to help the rising number obese children.
PHE has said a sugar levy on drinks will lead to a 20 per cent reduction of child obesity and the government’s childhood obesity plan has said it wants 20 per cent less sugar in key products that children consume.
These changes amount to approximately 200,000 tonnes of sugar a year being removed from people’s diets by 2020.
Duncan Selbie the chief executive of PHE said that they are not ordering chocolate companies to make them smaller, merely saying there could be a “legitimate way” in achieving this reduction.
Chief nutritionist, Alison Tedstone at PHE said: “We know that customers tell us in our surveys that they want smaller portion sizes, we know that reducing portion sizes supports health.”
“We are all human – if we are given that portion we will eat it despite us knowing it is too big so it’s going with the grain of health.”
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