info@sureteam.co.uk
Office Hours: 9:00am - 5:00pm

What You Need to Know About the Sugar Tax

Sugar TaxSugar Tax, is the words on everyone’s lips at the moment. So the big question, how many Coca Cola’s do you have during the week? What if you’ve had a stressful day in the office? I’ll ask the question again, how many Coca Cola’s do you have during the week?

Did you know…..In each 330ml can of Coca Cola, there is 35g of sugar! (Me neither!)

The NHS website states the standard amount of sugar each person should have each day: Added sugars shouldn’t make up more than 5% of the energy (calorie intake) you get from food and drink each day. This is about 30g of sugar a day for those aged 11 and over.

So one can of Coca Cola is 5g over your daily sugar recommendation, that is about nine teaspoons of sugar! and that isn’t including all the other sugars you have potentially eaten that day. Fruit juice and honey are included as they contain natural sugars.

What is the Sugar Tax?

The measure of sugar tax will put soft drinks into two bands: one for products containing 5g of sugar and above per 100ml, and one for those with 8g per 100ml. George Osborne expects the sugar tax to raise £520m, the money raised will be spent on increasing the funding for sport in primary schools.

One benefit of the sugar tax is that it could help reduce the pressure that they NHS are under, here are some figures that show how reducing sugar consumption can help:

The report estimates that if average UK sugar consumption is cut to no more than 5% of total energy intake per person within five years, it would:

  • prevent 4,700 deaths per year
  • prevent 242,000 cases of tooth decay per year
  • save the NHS £576 million per year “

Another promoter of the sugar tax is chef, Jamie Oliver, who has introduced a sugar tax in his own restaurants and is charging extra 10p for every drink containing added sugar. All the sugar tax collected in Jamie’s restaurants will be used to fund better education of healthy eating.

That cheeky coke on a Friday afternoon is not looking quite so inviting. But will the sugar tax reduce the amount of sugary drinks consumed?

What Can you Do to Cut Down Sugar in your Diet?

Here at Sureteam, we are very partial to a healthy diet but of course, we are all human and when Friday comes around that’s when it all goes downhill, fizzy Friday (the soft drink kind, sadly not prosecco), cake Friday (calories don’t count), call it what you will. We are all known to give in to a sugary snack or drink as a treat every now and then.

The NHS website, provides some great tips on how to cut down on sugar, give these a try:

  • instead of sugary, fizzy drinks and juice drinks, go for water or unsweetened fruit juice (remember to dilute fruit juices for children to further reduce the sugar)
  • if you take sugar in hot drinks or add it to cereal, gradually reduce the amount until you can cut it out altogether
  • check nutrition labels to help you pick the foods with less added sugar, or go for the low-sugar version
  • choose tins of fruit in juice, rather than syrup
  • choose wholegrain breakfast cereals, but not those coated with sugar or honey

How Can your Workplace Help to Cut Sugar?

Turn it into a competition! Here at Sureteam, we all try our best to consume healthy drinks, especially water! We all now have incredibly bright fancy water bottles and we are constantly peeking at each other’s to see who has drank the most so far. Not that we have taken this too far…. but we happen to know there is an app you can download for free to record the number of bottles you drink and it sends you reminders to drink more!

If you need further help with health and safety advice in your workplace, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01666 503686.