Crack down on sugary drinks and snacks in hospitals
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- Published: Wednesday, 26 April 2017 07:50
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Hospitals will be banned from selling sugary drinks and high-calorie snacks next year unless action is taken to drastically cut their sales, health officials have said. New rules will mean that fizzy drinks, sweetened coffee made and fruit juices with extra sugar will be heavily restricted in NHS hospitals. In a separate report a link has been found between fizzy drinks and dementia.
Under a national plan, retailers including Marks & Spencer, WH Smiths and Subway have agreed to ensure sales of sweet drinks do not exceed a maximum of 10 per cent of their drinks output. The rules will mean sweet fizzy drinks, coffees made with sugar syrup and fruit juices with extra sugar will be heavily restricted in hundreds of NHS cafés, as well as in staff canteens. Greggs, the baker, has also signed up to the plan, along with Medirest, which supplies hospitals with ready meals and uses suppliers such as Costa and Starbucks.
NHS England said all sugary drinks will be banned if the voluntary target is not met within 12 months. From next April, 60 per cent of sandwiches and pre-packed meals on sale in hospitals must contain a maximum of 400 calories per serving – rising to 75 per cent of cases a year later. Sixty per cent of sweets and chocolates sold must not exceed 250 calories - rising to 80 per cent of items by 2019.
Simon Stevens, NHS England’s chief executive, said: “A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down but spoonfuls of added sugar day-in, day-out mean serious health problems.
Link between fizzy drinks and dementia found
Drinking diet fizzy drinks every day almost triples the risk of developing dementia, a study suggests. Scientists at the University of Boston found that people who drank at least one artificially-sweetened beverage a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and three times as likely to suffer an ischemic stroke than those who barely drank any. The results of the study, published in the journals Alzheimer’s & Dementia and Stroke, accounted for factors that could have influenced the findings such as age, gender, education, exercise and calorie intake.
Researchers have warned, however, not to treat sugary drinks as a healthy option, saying there may be an as yet undetected link between full-sugar drinks and dementia and stroke. Prof Rachel Johnson said: “We know that limiting added sugars is an important strategy to support good nutrition and healthy body weights and until we know more people should use artificially sweetened drinks cautiously. They may have a role for people with diabetes and in weight loss, but we encourage people to drink water, low-fat milk or other beverages without added sweeteners.”
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