To be astonished at the stupidity of the Smart Swap campaign?

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

Yes, we all need to eat better and move about more but I've just seen the advert for swapping sugar loaded fizzy drinks for sugar free ones.

Am I alone in thinking it's one of the most ill thought of things they've come up with yet?

The sweetners in sugar free drinks are dangerous. The sugar free stuff usually advertised is most of the time, worse than the full fat stuff.

Link

I can see why they are doing this as it is a huge problem in this country, but I don't thing they've thought this through at all.

[AwfulMaureen]

Yanbu..utterly ridiculous. Also the idea of swapping to low fat spreads...I would not touch any of those plastic spreads with a barge pole....they're terrible!

[katese11]

Is it aimed at kids? Cause I wouldn't give mine Sugar free drinks... They have juice or water -I know juice isn't ideal for teeth but at least you understand what's in it!

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

Thank god for that, I thought I was going mad.

Thank you.

I'm with you on the spreads, awful stuff.

[katese11]

And it's giving a negative message about whole milk, when toddlers need the fat!

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

It's aimed at everyone katese11.

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

I'd even argue that everyone needs fat, salt and sugar - it's just a matter of watching how much you are eating ffs.

[JohnnyBarthes]

The stuff about aspartame is bunkum, iirc. But any soft drink can be bad for teeth so in that respect, YANBU.

[Joysmum]

My problem is with cittibg back on sugar and calories, not with sweeteners. Swapping for diet drinks works for me. Many people won't touch low fat spreads or any diet foods either because of salt and additives.

I think amending diet and lifestyle is best done in baby steps to be sustainable long term.

I think most people know what's best to eat (home cooked so you know what's in it, lean protein, low fat, low sugar, high fibre, lots of different fruit and veg) but for many, they can't do it. You have to wonder why? It's not as simple as it seems in many cases to anyone who has never had foody issues. If it was, everyone would only pop on a couple of lbs and find it easy to ditch it again and nobody would ever be overweight or obese.

[Madambossyboots]

Yanbu. It tastes disgusting too, not that I drink it or buy it as a rule but Dh did buy sprite for the dc over Christmas whilst we had wine! One of dc said it tastes horrible, tasted it, was indeed horrible. The label says.... Improved ..... Brevia extract, natural blah blah, it's all sweetners. I would rather proper sugar as a treat once in while, not sweetners, all day long. It's not healthy IMO.

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

Exactly Madam, it's not healthy.

For me it's sending alarm bells ringing in my head.

[SledYuleCated]

YANBU, I've found quite a few of the Change4Life things to be a bit odd.

[NumptyNameChange]

we get spoon fed some utter nonsense about diet.

wouldn't touch diet foods or low fat spreads - horrible artificial nonsense. low fat yoghurt is the most idiotic that springs to mind - yoghurt IS low fat but the fat that is in it is not bad for you as such and is the nutrition in the product. take the fat out and it's essentially water and synthetics with no nutritional value. just don't have a bloody yoghurt if you're that worried about it. it's a yoghurt for gods sake - eat the full fat normal yoghurt that will have some actual nutritional value and don't have the mars bar from the vending machine at breaktime.

[timidviper]

You can apply this statement to most processed foods, nasty chemical shitstorms, but the message eat wholesone fresh food does not make money for the big food companies who often fund government advice and the people producing it.

Drink water will not attract the funding that Coca-Cola may put into something that says drink diet drinks. Eat a healthy diet will not attract funding from Flora, Benecol and the low-fat brigade

[Solo]

YANBU!!

I tried unsuccessfully before Christmas twice to buy the full sugar variety of Tesco own brand lemonade, cream soda and dandelion and burdock. Nothing!
I refuse to feed my Dc's sugar free stuff with added poison.
I do though avoid sugary cereals and only buy semi skimmed milk, but I insist they have full fat yoghurt which Ds rarely has, but Dd has every breakfast time.

I understand the need for people to understand/realise what their families need in terms of healthy choices and exercise, but sugar substitutes? how about small amount of real sugar, honey or no sweetening at all instead?

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

timid "You can apply this statement to most processed foods, nasty chemical shitstorms, but the message eat wholesone fresh food does not make money for the big food companies who often fund government advice and the people producing it."

It's exactly that which has set the alarm bells off in my head.

[mrspremise]

Timidviper, I agree completely You win the thread afaic, fresh food is of no interest to these 'campaigns' because vegetables don't have pockets at all, let alone deep ones

[JohnnyBarthes]

I am not a fan of artificial sweeteners - they taste grim and there have been suggestions that they do weird stuff to your metabolism. They are generally used because they are cheaper than sugar, with the added bonus of manufacturers being able to boast about their products being reduced or zero sugar, which in a world which focusses on calories and seems to think it's soley the sugar and not the acids in soft drinks that wreck teeth, sells.

They are not however "poison".

[Solo]

I believe that aspartame is poison.

[gordyslovesheep]

I believe aspartame is absolutely safe I also don't need to eat better or move more

[gordyslovesheep]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25323216

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

Forget the aspartame - it's everything.

Low fat or sugar free stuff is in general worse for you than the full fat/sugar stuff. Yes?

[Solo]

Yes. I think so Farrow

[gordyslovesheep]

not necessarily in a balanced diet - I wont have marg I only have butter but I do drink skimmed milk

fresh, home cooked food is better but it's not always doable - a low fat alternative is miles better than a fat filed ready meal I would imagine

[gordyslovesheep]

I think drinking 5 diet drink is better than drinking 5 full fat one though - sorry

[Solo]

I'm not about to start buying in aspartame 'sweetened' products on anyones sayso gordy as I believe it's no good!