This week, supermarket giant Tesco announced that it will make further reductions to the amount of sugar in its soft drinks and these newly reformulated drinks will be available in-store from 11^th November.

This reduction in sugar is a direct result of the government’s sugar tax and is part of Tesco’s ongoing commitment to reduce the sugar, fat and salt content of the products the company makes.  This reduction in sugar content means that Tesco’s soft drinks will now have less than five grams of sugar per 100ml meaning that the average Tesco customer will be consuming 20% less sugar than they did in 2011.

Tesco is working in partnership with Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation to improve the nation’s health and so far they have reduced the salt, sugar and fat content of over 4,200 products.

Matt Davies, Tesco UK’s CEO said of this recent reduction in sugar:

“This is just one part of our plans to make the food on our shelves healthier by reducing levels of sugar, salt and fat in our own brands”

This reduction in sugar can be seen as a success of the government’s sugar levy (sugar tax) which will apply to drinks with a total sugar content above 5 grams per 100ml. A higher rate will be applied to drinks with more than 8 grams per 100ml. The levy won’t be applied to milk-based drinks or fruit juices. The levy will come into effect from April 2018.

The money raised from sugar levy will be used to double the funding available to primary schools for PE and sports programme. The government has estimated that the sugar levy will raise £320 million a year for primary schools to support healthier more active lifestyles in children. The funding will not only go towards expanding PE and sports programmes but to also expand breakfast clubs in primary schools ensuring that children have access to a healthy breakfast every week day.

The Lake Foundation is happy to hear that Tesco has taken this step to reduce the sugar content of its soft drinks and if more companies follow suit this can make a significant contribution to improving the health of the UK’s population.

A study published yesterday by the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health has found that a plant-based diet significantly reduces a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, especially if that diet is rich in quality plant foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes.

The study found that just moderate changes in a person’s diet can lead to significant reduction in risk. They found that  people who maintained a plant-based diet that was low in animal foods were 20% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes and those that consumed a healthy version of a plant-based diet were 34% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

This study is very important to the black community as our community is at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The Lake Foundation encourages everyone to turn towards a more plant-based die to reduce their risk of this condition.

Last month Public Health England launched their new Eatwell Guide which aims to give the public clear guidance on what a healthy diet looks like. This new Eatwell Guide replaces the Eatwell Plate and now encourages people to include more fruit, vegetables and starchy carbohydrates in their diet and less sugary foods and drinks.

The new Eatwell Guide is based on the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition’s 2015 report on carbohydrates and health. It encourages the public to eat 30g of fibre a day, less than 6 grams of salt a day and that women should consume less than 20 grams of saturated fat a day and men less that 30 grams. The new guide also recommends that people consumes less than 30 grams of sugar a day and adults should be aiming to drink 6-8 gasses of fluids ideally from water, lower fat milks and unsweetened drinks.

A major difference between this new guide and the previous Eatwell Plate is the removal of sugary drinks. Additionally foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar have been moved to the outside of the guide to stress that they do not form part of a healthy diet.

The Eatwell Guide is  a useful resource for anyone wanting clear recommendations on healthy eating. You can read more about it here

A new study has found that many foods contain higher amounts of salt than ever before. This comes five years after the food industry signed a voluntary code pledging to reduce salt levels in foods. The study from CASH discovered that foods including cheese and certain ready meals had much larger levels of salt than in previous years. There were many foods which contained surprising amounts including soups. Nearly 50% of the soups featured in the study contained, at a minimum, similar amounts to slices of pizza.

Some everyday foods had huge increases. The study found that the salt content of Sainsbury’s cornflakes increased by 42 per cent in recent years.

Consuming high amounts of salt may raise your blood pressure, and increases your risk of developing coronary heart disease. People of African descent are sensitive to the effects of too much salt and are therefore at higher risk of associated health conditions such as high blood pressure, stroke and renal failure. Adults should not eat more than 6 grams per day. You can learn more about this report here.

A new study has linked high dietary fibre with a reduced risk of breast cancer. The study of over 90,000 women compared the incidence of breast cancer in those who had diets high in fibrous foods (such as potatoes) with those who consumed less.

The risk of breast cancer was 12%-19% lower in young women with higher fibre diets. High intake during adolescence was also associated with 24% lower risk of breast cancer before menopause. Among all the women, the relationship between fibre intake and breast cancer risk reduction was the same: the greater the intake, the greater the reduction in breast cancer risk. Fibre from vegetable and fruit sources had the most obvious benefits.

The reasons for this effect are not yet completely understood but the study authors have suggested that fibre-rich foods reduce oestrogen levels and high oestrogen levels are associated with breast cancer development.

Women from the African and African-Caribbean community have already been noted to have poorer outcomes in relation to breast cancer when compared to white women.  It has also been reported that Black women tend to develop breast cancer earlier. Increasing dietary fibre certainly appears to be another weapon in the fight against breast cancer.

You can read more about this study here.

An interesting new study has linked sweet drinks with body fat. The study has shown that drinking sugary drinks (such as coke) every day increases a type of body fat known as visceral fat. This type of fat surrounds particular organs in our bodies such as the pancreas and the liver. Visceral fat is important because it is linked to the development of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The study of a 1,003 people(average age of 45 years) compared the effects of sugary soda with diet soda drinks on visceral fat. The participants completed questionnaires about their food and drink consumption andbody fat levels were recorded using CT scans.  The participants were followed up over a period of 6 years and the authors found that those who drank sugary soda most frequently (daily) had the highest levels of visceral fat. However, there was no change in visceral fat levels in those who drank diet soda drinks.

People of African and African-Caribbean descent (and other ethnic minorities) have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Reducing the drinking frequency or finding alternatives to these drinks may help to reduce the risk of these conditions.

You can read more about this report here and here.

A recently published study has thrown new light on the links between dietary sugar and breast cancer. The study authors investigated the effect of different types of diets on the development of tumours in mice. The authors found that just 30% of mice on a starch-based diet had measurable tumours, whereas 50 to 58 percent of the mice on sucrose-enriched diets had developed mammary or breast tumours. The study also showed that numbers of lung metastases (secondary cancer growths) were significantly higher in mice on sucrose- or a fructose-enriched diet, when compared with mice on a starch -based diet.  This implies that sucrose and fructose have the ability to promote tumour growth through specific pathways.

 Although it’s difficult to compare mice with humans,  the mice in this study received amounts of sugar (relative to their size) that were similar to amounts found in western diets. This raises questions about the presence of sugar in the western diet and its influence on breast cancer. The diets of people of African and African-Caribbean descent are often high in sugar. It is also the case that young UK based Black women (under the age of 40) have poorer outcomes in relation to breast cancer when compared with their non-black counterparts.  Further research into the effects of dietary sugar on breast cancer in humans (particularly young Black women) is certainly warranted.

You can find more information about the studies here , here and here.

This week, an article in the Daily Record encourages everyone to take a look at the Japanese diet and lifestyle if we are serious about improving the health and wellbeing of our families. They stated that The Lancet has found that Japanese children are the healthiest in the world and this is down to their lifestyle.

The article highlights a new book by husband and wife team William Doyle and Naomi Moriyama, Secrets of the World’s Healthiest Children. This book is based on Doyle and Moriyama’s research into why Japan is the world leader when it comes to health. The key reasons why this is so include:

–          The Japanese eat foods high in nutrients, including fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
–          They don’t rely on processed foods
–           The Japanese only consume sugar or salt in small quantities
–          Meat is usually treated as a garnish or side dish rather than the main part of any meal
–          The Japanese eat moderately, they serve only moderate sized portions of food
–          The Japanese are physically active

Let’s follow Japan’s example and adopt some of their habits to ensure that we too can enjoy good health.

The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) has found that unhealthy eating contributes to more deaths globally than any other factor. This is because unhealthy eating plays a role in increasing risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.  They also found that high blood pressure was another big cause of premature death across the world.

The IHME’s conclusions are based on data from 108 countries from 1990 to 2013.

This study is very important as it adds to the evidence base that shows the extent to which our diet affects our health and wellbeing. It also shows that we can significantly improve our health by making very simple changes to our lifestyle.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has recently published a report entitled Food for Thought which aims to provide recommendations on how to promote a healthy diet among children and young people. The report was conducted in recognition of doctors’ increasing concern about the impact of poor diet on the UK’s health with high levels of ill health and premature mortality which all significantly drain the NHS’s resources. The BMA’s report recommends the following:

Overall approach to diet-related ill health

• A strong regulatory framework should be central to the approach to reducing the burden of diet-related ill health in the UK, focused on interventions that limit commercial influences on people’s dietary behaviour and encourage healthy dietary patterns.

Improving attitudes and knowledge

• High-impact and sustained social marketing campaigns should be used to improve attitudes and knowledge about healthy dietary behaviour and the health risks of a poor diet.
• Local authorities should work with schools to achieve the wider implementation of the whole-school approach for promoting healthier diets throughout the UK.
• There should be adequate resources to support all healthcare professionals in addressing dietary behaviour where possible and clinically appropriate.

Restrictions on mass media advertising and other marketing communications

• Regulations should be developed to prohibit the marketing of unhealthy food and drink products to children and young people.
• The marketing of unhealthy food and drink products in schools should be prohibited.

Regulating industry practices and changing the retail environment

• The UK health departments should commission a review of how the regulation of sales promotions can be strengthened to ensure they favour healthy options and deliver public health benefits.
• Regulations should be developed that prohibit retailers from displaying and promoting unhealthy food and drink products at checkouts and in queuing areas.

The physical availability of unhealthy and healthy products

• Local authorities should be provided with the power to restrict the future number, clustering and concentration of fast-food outlets locally.

Food in schools

• Legislation should be introduced in England to ensure that mandatory school food standards apply to all academy schools and free schools.
• A free fruit and vegetable scheme should be available to all primary school children throughout the UK five days per week.
• Consideration should be given to extending the provision of free school meals in Northern Ireland and Wales to be universal rather than based on entitlement.

Hospital food standards

• The UK health departments should work together to develop and implement consistent and comprehensive hospital food standards, which should be introduced as a statutory requirement.

Other food available in the hospital environment

• The sale of all unhealthy food and drink products should be phased out in all NHS hospitals, supported by the development and implementation of UK-wide mandatory regulations.

Food standards in social care setting

• Nutritional standards should be developed and implemented for the provision of food in all care homes in the UK, and should be a statutory requirement.

Regulating the nutritional content of processed food and drink products

• A one-year target should be set for manufacturers, retailers and caterers to not produce or sell any food and drink products containing artificial trans fats in the UK.
• All manufacturers, retailers and caterers should prioritise action to systematically reduce salt levels in all food and drink products sold and produced in the UK.
• UK-wide targets, to be achieved by 2020, should be set for manufacturers, retailers and caterers to reduce calorie, fat, saturated fat and added sugar levels for certain product categories

Fiscal measures that favour healthy diets

• A tax should be introduced on all sugar-sweetened beverages, which increases the price by at least 20%.
• Consideration should be given to the introduction of fiscal measures to subsidise the sale of fruit and vegetables.

International cooperation on nutrition

• The UK Government should lobby for, and support the World Health Organization in developing and implementing an international treaty on food and nutrition in the form of a Framework Convention on Healthy Nutrition.

The BMA recognises that these recommendations will not sit well with the government strategy of working with the food industry and this is where organisations like The Lake Foundation can make a difference as we aim to work in the best interest of the public. We support these recommendations as they recognise the importance of making healthy eating more affordable and accessible whilst making unhealthy food less affordable and accessible. We believe this is very important as the black community is disproportionately affected by diet-related diseases such as diabetes and high blood, and thus these recommendations, if implemented, would be of great benefit to our community.

You can download the BMA’s complete report below.