Americans need to reduce the amount of added sugar they eat, not just switch to another kind of sugar, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, said in a letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, and Marty Makary, commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, or FDA.
Kennedy has called sugar “poison” and highlighted the link between excess added sugar intake and childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
However, President Trump recently made headlines by announcing that Coca-Cola would start sweetening its products with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.
But, nutrition scientists say swapping one type of sugar for another will do nothing to improve health.
Consumers need information to make healthy choices, address misleading marketing, and improve the healthfulness of the U.S. food supply, the CSPI said.
With its letter, the CSPI is calling on HHS and FDA to get serious about sugar by focusing on sugar reduction, not trying to make sugary drinks taste “better.”
“To make real progress, our country needs policies to reduce added sugars overall, consumed in beverages and across the American diet,” the CSPI told federal officials.
It urged the federal agencies to act quickly on the policy recommendations in the letter to encourage food industry reformulation and to enable consumers to access the information they need to make healthy choices for themselves and their families.
The policies include:
- Establishing added sugar reduction targets for packaged and restaurant food, similar to FDA’s existing sodium reduction targets.
- Mandating front-of-package nutrition labels that highlight when foods are high in added sugar.
- Encouraging companies to label their foods “healthy” when they meet FDA’s newly-updated definition of the term.
- Requiring chain restaurants to disclose how much added sugar is in their menu items.
- Defining “low added sugar” claims and taking enforcement action to prevent claims such as “lightly sweetened” and “less sweet” on products that are actually high in added sugar.
- Ensuring shoppers can access full nutrition and ingredient information when buying groceries online.
- Addressing misleading marketing of toddler formulas, which contain added sugar and are not recommended for young children.
The FDA hasn’t released its regulatory agenda yet.
Although Kennedy talks about improving the health of Americans through changes to the food system, the food industry has opposed efforts to remove artificial dyes and other healthy initiatives for decades. It follows stricter food laws in Europe while continuing to put harmful chemicals in the food that Americans, including children, eat.
We’ll see if Kennedy will be able to buck the powerful food industry in the regulatory food arena.
