Change4Life Be Food Smart app: Children's breakfast sugar warning

Many children are having half their daily recommended sugar intake before the morning school bell rings.

New Government figures released today to coincide with a campaign urging parents to take control of their children’s diets show that youngsters are having more than 11g of sugar at breakfast time alone - almost three sugar cubes.

Despite this, researchers found that eight out of 10 parents believed their children’s breakfast was healthy.

The worst offenders at breakfast time include sugary cereals, drinks, and spreads. Away from the breakfast table, children are also eating too much sugar, saturated fat and salt in items such as confectionery, biscuits, muffins, pastries and soft drinks, which all contribute to an unhealthy diet.

The latest findings come on the back of recent reports show that childhood obesity in England has reached alarming rates. In the South East 20.9% of children aged four to five years are overweight or obese and the number increases to 30.8% among children aged 10-11-years.

Sara Stanner, Science Director at the British Nutrition Foundation said: "When analysing a number of breakfasts from families across England, we were concerned to see the high amount of free sugars and low amount of fibre in many of these.

'A healthy breakfast can make an important contribution to children’s vitamin and mineral intakes'

“We know a healthy breakfast can make an important contribution to children’s vitamin and mineral intakes and its consumption has been linked to many positive health outcomes.

"There are plenty of healthier options available so we need campaigns like this to help busy parents make the right choices for their families.”

As part of the Be Food Smart campaign, organised by health body Change4Life, a new app has been launched to highlight just how much sugar, saturated fat and salt can be found in everyday food and drink that children consume.

The free app helps and encourages families to choose healthier options and works by scanning the barcode of products allowing parents to compare brands, and features food detective activities for children and mini missions the whole family can enjoy.

The campaign also helps parents identify the health harms of children eating and drinking too much sugar, saturated fat and salt, including becoming overweight or obese and developing tooth decay.

Download the new free Be Food Smart app from the iTunes Store or Google Play to get hints and tips to cut down the amount of total sugar, saturated fat and salt in your family’s diet