Dearer sugar ‘has benefit’

Press, 10 April 1980, Page 25

Dearer sugar ‘has benefit’

PA Wellington A nutrition expert in Wellington, Dr Brian Shetland, sees a bright side to the increase in sugar prices. “Sugar is a sort of. addiction. New Zealanders have developed a taste for it,” he said. But if manufacturers were forced to cut down on the amounts they used, the public’s taste would adapt accordingly. Advertising campaigns and food technology could be directed to promoting food that contained fewer concentrated calories, and was healthier, such as biscuits made of wheat and flour without sugar, or natural rolled oats instead of refined cereals.

“The price increase may be a revelation to the public, in the sense that people begin to see how much sugar is going into their food,” said Dr Shorland.

Sugar constituted 15 per cent of the total calorie intake of people in Western countries, and in most cases they would be better off without that contribution, he said. A high sugar intake has been linked with a number of different health problems, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, tooth decay, and obesity but in countries such as rural Africa, where sugar intake is much lower than in Western countries, these health problems were less common, Dr Shorland said.