不管你是不是甜品爱好者，都无法避免摄入日常饮食中所含的糖分。这是因为很多食物和饮料是含糖的。尽管人们都知道过度摄入糖类有害健康，但这并没有阻止一些人大量且无节制地吃甜食，从而患上肥胖、糖尿病和龋齿等疾病。
There's no doubt that I have a sweet tooth – I
crave1 cakes and biscuits and could happily finish off a bar of chocolate in minutes. I'm sure I'm not alone, the sweet sugary taste is
addictive2 but the big question is, is it bad for me? I think I know the answer!
Sugar is everywhere. Even if sweet stuff isn't your thing it's hard to avoid. In the UK, we consume over two million tonnes of sugar every year but often we don’t know we’re eating it. There have been many health campaigns, telling us about the dangers of consuming too much sugar and we have probably learnt that it should be eaten in moderation but we may be
unaware3 of the added sugar we consume that's found in the food and drink we think of as healthy or savoury, such as low-fat yoghurt and sauces.
The obvious negative effect of eating sugar is on our dental health – tooth decay is a big problem in children, partly caused by drinking too many sugary drinks. Public Health England claims a child in England has a tooth removed in hospital every 10 minutes due to preventable decay. But even if you can escape the dentist's drill, there are more worrying negative effects - repeatedly eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain and even
obesity4, leading to an increased risk of
diabetes5, heart disease and liver disease.
So what can we do to cut down on our sugar
intake6? Well, there are low-sugar recipes you can try and
apparently7 there are alternative foods to help us beat the sweet cravings. But potentially the most effective method is to tax the sugar we consume. It's what several countries have been doing for a while and the UK has recently jumped on the bandwagon, by forcing manufacturers to pay a
levy8 on the high-sugar drinks they sell. It's up to the manufacturers if they pass the cost on to consumers.
But will it work? University of Bedfordshire nutrition expert Dr Daniel Bailey told BBC Online that: "The increase in tax placed on soft drinks will make products more expensive, but will this actually discourage people from buying them?" Maybe if you're
addicted9 to the stuff, you'd accept paying more to buy it. But in the UK at least, several soft drinks companies have already reduced the sugar content of their products to avoid the tax.
Obviously it's better to do something rather than nothing to help improve the
well-being10 of everyone. But with so many temptations out there, I'm not sure how easy it will be to cure my sweet tooth.
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