Public Health England (PHE) plans to advise the manufacturers of 'sugary' products to reduce the sugar or sucrose content of their product by 20 percent. The control in the use of sucrose alone, in goods or other products, pertains to its effects when consumed in high amounts.
A high level of sugar may lead to diabetes if the body does not have enough insulin to catabolize it. According to The Guardian, the control approach is based on the fact that sucrose damages the health through the calories it contains. Additional and rigorous discoveries regarding some toxic effects of sucrose may help in the said approach.
PHE predicts that the 20 percent reduction of sugar in commercial goods will result in 200,000 fewer tons of sugar that will be consumed in 2020 than today. The reduction, in turn, will put down the rates of overweight children to 20 percent as well.
The voluntary sugar reduction program can be achieved in three years; it's a long process but the wait is worth it for the sake of health. The United Kingdom suggests the children should be consuming a maximum of 24 to 30gm of sugar per day or six to seven sugar cubes. According to World Health Organization, the number of people suffering from diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in the year 2014.
The worldwide prevalence of diabetes among adults has risen from 4.7 percent in 1980 to 8.5 percent in 2014. The disease has been rising faster among middle- and low-income countries. In 2012, an estimated 1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes while in the same year; 2.2 million deaths resulted from a high level of blood sugar.
As reported by American Heart Association (AHA), there is a maximum amount of added sugar an individual should consume in a day. Men should consume 150 calories per day (37.5gm or 9 teaspoons) and for women, 100 calories per day (25gm or 6 teaspoons).
