Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to educate young people on sugar intake and moderating sugar consumption to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Public Health England (PHE) runs the Government’s flagship social marketing campaign, Change4Life which helps families to eat well, move more and live longer. It has recently run a series of campaigns which have included or focused on sugar consumption. This is primarily focused at the parents of children aged 5-11.

In January 2013, the Change4Life Be Food Smart campaign raised awareness of the amount of sugar in sugary drinks. Then in January 2014, the Change4Life Smart Swaps campaign encouraged families to choose one small swap to make their everyday diet healthier, such as swapping sugary drinks to “sugar-free”, “diet”, “no-added-sugar” drinks, milk or water.

In summer 2014 Change4Life also ran a digital sugar swaps promotion which included promotion through the Change4Life and NHS Choices websites; e-newsletter to a million families on the Change4Life database; publication of a new downloadable “sugar swaps” leaflet to help parents reduce their children’s sugar intake; social media activity through the Change4Life Twitter account and more than a quarter of a million Change4Life Facebook friends. PHE has also produced a new “sugar swaps” filler radio advertisement which has been aired from the summer.

In January 2015 Change4Life aims to build on the success of the previous Smart Swaps campaign, with a new Sugar Swaps campaign that will encourage and help families make simple swaps to take sugar, out of their diet and make healthier choices.

Change4Life also engages with primary schools to promote physical activity and healthy eating messages.