11--Parents are 'poisoning' their children with sugary food and drink

Links: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11641726/Parents-are-poisoning-their-children-with-sugary-food-and-drink.html

Parents are 'poisoning' their children with sugary food and drink

Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, says that parents must take responsibility for what their children eat and drink

Parents are "poisoning" their children by giving them too much sugary food and drink and must give them water, milk and fruit instead, the head of the NHS has warned.

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said that parents must take "responsibility" or put their children at risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

He said that obesity is the "new smoking" and urged food manufacturers and supermarkets to do more to take sugar out of the food and drink they sell.

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He told the Andrew Marr show on BBC One: "We've done very well in terms of cutting smoking and teenage pregnancy and drink driving. But the new smoking is obesity. One in five cancer deaths is now caused by obesity.

'It's going to take all of us to play our part. As parents, we've got responsibilities. When your children come home after school - it's water, or milk, not fizzy drinks or juice. Cut up apples not sugary bars. We've got responsibilities in schools."

He added that the food industry must also take "huge responsibility". He said: "One in three of our teenagers are drinking high energy, sugary drinks. I do think we're going to need reformulation to take sugar out of foods, in the same way that successfully that's happened with salt.

"Responsible retailers, food producers can smell the coffee here. They can see public attitudes are changing. If that doesn't happen then in effect what we're doing is a slow burner food poisoning through all of this sugar that goes on to cause cancer, diabetes, heart disease. That's what we're doing to our kids, we've got to top it."