Health professionals are becoming increasingly concerned about the content of sugar in everyday food and drink products.

So much so, that they have started labelling sugar as ‘the new tobacco’. They have even gone so far as to predict “a wave of disease and death” unless sugar levels are slashed by 30% across all products.

This stems from discoveries which revealed that even fat-free yoghurts to contain up to five teaspoons of sugar, while a can of Heinz tomato soup contains four.

A Bar One has about eight teaspoons of sugar, and a Starbucks caramel Frappucino packs a whopping 11 teaspoons of sugary delight.

Simon Capewell, professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Liverpool, said that:

Everywhere, sugary drinks and junk foods are now pressed on unsuspecting parents and children by a cynical  industry focused on profit not health.

The obesity epidemic is generating a huge burden of disease and death. Obesity and diabetes already cost the UK over £5 billion a year. Without regulation, these costs will exceed £50billion by 2050.

Here’s a handy table that will make you feel guilty, fat, and stupid.

The UN agency says there is “overwhelming evidence coming out about sugar-sweetened beverages and other sugar consumption being linked to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

Ain’t that sweet.

[Source : Daily Mail]