Many sweets and chocolates sold in the UK, especially children's sweets, contain harmful chemicals.

Never mind the sugar! Are our children being poisoned by their sweets?
article by Alex Renton in the Daily Mail

I've only just come across this interesting article, which was published on Jan 1st this year, but better late than never...(o:

I do hope you will read all of the original article because it contains such a lot of information important in safeguarding children's health. - Here is an extract:

"During my investigation, I found dangerous colourings and preservatives in famous names such as Cadbury Roses chocolates, Maynards, Wrigley's gum, Jawbreakers, Jelly Babies, Kiddies Mix, Refreshers, Lovehearts, Hubba Bubba bubble gum and Fizz Bombs, as well as a huge range of corner-shop sweets sold as Nisha's or Family Favourites.

Novelty sweets branded on Bratz dolls and cartoon character Scooby-Doo had them too. A build-it-yourself gingerbread house from the John Lewis toy department had more bad dyes than any other item I found.

If it's cheaply made and highly coloured, it seems, it's more likely than not to have an 'azo-dye' (a synthetic nitrogen-based compound dye) in it - and that includes all the children's favourites: the snakes, marshmallows and bootlaces sold loose in corner shops.

The chief villains - the ones everyone agrees are dangerous - are mainly colours derived from coal tar. These are known as the 'Dirty Six' and go under the names sunset yellow (or E number 110), carmoisine (E122), tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red (E129).

They're reds and yellows, and commonly found in sweets, jellies, ice lollies, fizzy drinks and many obviously coloured foods, such as icing on cakes. Three of them have been linked with asthma and other allergies. Many of them are banned in medicines, or must carry warnings.

All of them, government scientists now agree, can cause or exacerbate hyperactivity or attention disorder.

For my daughter - who's pretty busy, not hyperactive - the worry is what's known as the cocktail effect: these colourings combined with commonly used benzoate preservatives (which go under E numbers 210 to 219) may exacerbate other allergic conditions as well as hyperactivity.

The benzoates, according to the FSA, are thought to worsen symptoms of asthma and eczema in children who have these conditions - and they're banned in food products for the under-threes."

You may like also to visit http://www.actiononadditives.com/Home/

British Youngsters with a £280 a year sweets and fizzy drinks habit

Youngsters with a £280 a year sweets and fizzy drinks habit

Extracts:

1) "British children spend nearly £280 a year each on sweets and fizzy drinks and have the worst eating habits in Europe, a survey reveals today.
The figures go a long way to explaining the obesity epidemic, with children as young as five spending more than £100 a year on sweets and the same on fizzy drinks. The information comes from market analysts Datamonitor, which says that snacking has never been easier."

2) "The report says that one British child in three is overweight."

Salty food causes fluid retention in children and that of course results in obesity. -The obesity in turn creates a need for more food/calories because of having to carry around and service a body of greater weight. The need for more food, and especially for more calories, is probably the main reason for the high sweets and sugary drinks consumption the British children favour.

In the countries cited as having lower spending by children on sweets and soft drinks, children are fed less on convenience/processed meals so have a lower salt intake and therefore are less obese and have smaller calorie requirements, resulting in lower sugar/sweet consumption.

The facts are that child obesity is caused by high salt consumption and not by high energy consumption or by inactivity.

Children's meals need to be low in salt.

See children and salt