Sugar intake has long been connected to the development of serious diseases like diabetes, cancer and even early death. This fact has prompted the government to rethink its approach to encouraging citizens from giving up their sugar intake.
The United Kingdom and the United States are two of the most powerful countries in the world and their campaigns on cutting sugar intake off one's diet vary greatly. Both countries must look carefully into their existing policies for a recent study published shows how these countries can help save lives and at the same time save on billions of dollars too.
The Food and Drug Administration of the US has introduced a new approach to food labeling. It explicitly includes says that a reduce in the consumption of sugar could directly lessen the cost of healthcare for the next 20 years or so for as much as $31 billion. This information was released on the journal Circulation on Monday.
The UK government has plans of ordering manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar added to their products. Such information was released in a paper in BMJ and it could provide the government with roughly $373.5 millions in healthcare services for over the next ten years. Both strategies are geared up to reducing calories that people gain out of consuming all the added sugar.
The FDA of the United States will start requiring companies to update the nutrition labels in their products to specifically provide customers with information as to how much sugar is contained in each product. This could help the government with their campaign to lessen the sugar intake of consumers by as much as 200 calories from sugar each day. Doing this could help prevent at least 354,400 cases of cardiovascular disease. It could also prevent at least 599,300 cases of patients suffering from diabetes over the next twenty years.
In the UK, the government aims at reducing the sugar levels in food items, particularly in cereals. Doing so would help them reduce sugar from breakfast cereals by 2020. Their study shows that doing so will reduce the calorie intake of adults by 19 calories and 25 for children. The BMJ studies also show that when the government hits this project and makes it possible, they could prevent at least 155,000 cases of diabetes, 3,500 cardiovascular cases and more than 5,000 cases of colorectal cancer.
In short, the goal was not to eliminate sugar content altogether. They can reduce sugar by small increments can bring about a huge change in the healthcare services provided by the government. Each approach may not go out as planned the first time. Oftentimes, the obstacles can be very hard to beat, but the government has to try.
