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The World Health Organisation has launched the first ever public consultation on the recommended levels of sugar intake.  When finalised, the new WHO guidelines will provide recommendations to reduce major public health challenges that are plaguing Zimbabwe’s overall growth and development.
The new sugar recommendations could come in at a dire time with Zimbabwe’s escalating rates of lifestyle-induced non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs — mainly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, obesity and chronic respiratory diseases — are now some of Zimbabwe’s biggest killers.

The proposed guidelines appear to have a two-tiered recommendation that one’s sugar intake should not exceed 10 percent of total energy intake per day, with 5 percent the target. It works out to be about 50g a day for a normal weight adult, said the WHO.

“A recommendation like this one can be used to develop food-based dietary guidelines, can be used to develop nutrient profiling of food, can also be used as a basis to have policies to provide healthier food in public institutions, to restrict marketing of several products,” describes Dr Francesco Branca, the director of WHO’s Department for Nutrition for Health and Development.

The vast majority of the sugar consumed is ‘hidden’ in processed and convenience take-away food items. For example, sugar can be found in catsup, snack foods and sodas.

The average serving of soda contains up to 35g of sugar with few healthy nutrients.

To understand the recommendation, one must know the difference between free and intrinsic sugars. WHO’s recommendation does not apply to intrinsic sugars that are found in fruits and vegetables. Eating fruits and vegetables are known to significantly lower rates of NCDs. Free sugars “…are added to the food by the manufacturers, by the cook, by the consumer or are naturally present in honey, in fruit syrups, fruit concentrates,” Dr Branca adds.

Free sugars are commonly listed under other names such as sucrose, glucose, fructose and maltose on the food label. These are the chemical names of the different forms of sugar and they all apply to the new sugar recommendation.

The new sugar guidelines could prove instrumental in halting the sharp rise of Type 2 diabetes and obesity as described in WHO’s Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases 2013-2020.

Obesity plays a significant role in the high rates of maternal and infant mortality rates in Zimbabwe. For both, reducing one’s sugar intake to the new recommended levels would prove essential in achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

While deaths from non communicable diseases mainly occur in adulthood, exposure to risk factors usually begins in childhood and builds up throughout life — underpinning the importance of cross-cutting legislative and regulatory measures.  Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into adulthood and more likely to develop non communicable diseases at a younger age. Overweight and obesity, as well as their related diseases, are largely preventable and reversible.

The prevention of childhood obesity therefore needs to be a high priority. The cost of inaction significantly outweighs the cost of taking action against non communicable diseases.

To take action, please visit: www.who.int/nutrition/sugars_public_consultation/en/

Public consultation is open until March 31 2014. Interested people will have to submit a declaration of interest through the WHO website and submit their comments, which will be thoroughly analysed by the WHO Secretariat.

The writer is a doctor and an international health columnist that works in collaboration with the World Health Organisation’s goals of disease prevention and control. Views do not necessarily reflect endorsement.