Last week, we wrote about the study published by the European Journal of Nutrition, which talked about the excessive consumption of sugar by young children in the U.K.
In a similar vein, researchers at the Queen University of London discovered that the sugar content in the chocolate in the UK has increased since 1992. In the 90’s the sugar content for a chocolate bar averaged 44.6%. Today, the average sugar content has risen to 54.7%.
The report suggests that if low sugar versions of these snacks existed in the 90’s that there should be no problem lowering the sugar content in general. The UK government has challenged food retailers and manufacturers to decrease the amount of sugar in sweets most commonly eaten by children by 20% in the following year.
Other measures that are being considered include a calorie tax on cakes and chocolate bars. The year before, the UK government implemented a 24p tax on carbonated drink manufacturers that created drinks that contained 8g of sugar per 100ml. If the calorie tax goes through, the cost of chocolate bars would rise and the extra proceedings would go towards tackling childhood obesity.