Eating too much added sugar over time is linked to serious health problems, including obesity, tooth decay and chronic diseases such as Heart Disease, Type 2 Diabetes and Liver Disease.
Over the last few centuries, life expectancy has risen steadily with each generation. But our sugar-laden world could undo that.
This generation of children is on track to have shorter life-spans than their parents, due to poor diet.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says we should be limiting our added sugar intake to 6 teaspoons per day for optimal health. Learn How to Spot Added Sugar here or more about the science on our resources page.
Too much added sugar is costing our dental health too. More and more toddlers in Australia are having their baby teeth surgically removed.
“Tooth decay is somewhat of a silent epidemic in Australia. With around 1 in 2 children having tooth decay in their adult teeth by the age of 12, it is far and away the most prevalent disease affecting our children, and tooth decay rates have increased more than 60% over the past 12 years, yet we don’t hear enough about it. And despite being preventable, all too often there are young children having teeth filled or extracted to treat the consequences of decay. Reducing the amount of sugar that we eat is one of the best ways we can help kids to have healthy teeth for life.” - Clinical Associate Professor Matthew Hopcraft, Sugar-free Smiles
Diseases like diabetes and heart disease are expected to hit the baby boomer generation at around age 60-65. But for our overweight teens, it is likely that these diseases will hit 5 to 10 years earlier. What’s more worrying is we’re seeing a rise of what were previously adult-onset diseases, like Type 2 diabetes, in young people.
Today, 280 Australians will be diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, that’s one person every five minutes
Life isn’t just about how long we live, either. It’s about our ability to do the things we love and enjoy life. Diabetes can result in devastating complications, like amputations, blindness, kidney failure and stroke.
We have a serious problem when it comes to the amount of sugar in our food supply. Lots of added sugar is hiding in foods we think are healthy.
We are eating way too much added sugar, often without realising it. It’s easy to see how:
It’s not too late to protect your kids from poor health and a shortened lifespan.
Join us and together we can raise awareness and take action to protect current and future generations from obesity, tooth decay, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
How does sugar compare to tobacco? A teaspoon of sugar or one cigarette will not harm you. But over time, the habit can be fatal. Unlike Big Tobacco, Big Sugar deliberately targets children. And added sugar has become so pervasive within the food environment that we can't avoid it even if we wanted to.
