BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Hello and welcome to More or Less, the program which sweetens the bitter pill of life with

the honey delights of statistical truth. This week which planet is usually closest to the

earth? The answer may surprise you. Deprizzaners really get more time outdoors than children,

and a running commentary on this recent edition of the Today program.

The headlines this morning, rail fares go up by around 3 per cent today, despite continuing

evidence of poor service and punctuality. We'll get back to that claim after a brief delay,

but first... Young children are eating more sugar than the recommended maximum for an adult

public health England is warning. Yes, the nation greeted the new year with a series of less-than-chewing

headlines about sugar. For example, the claim that children typically exceed the recommended

total sugar consumption for an 18-year-old by the age of 10. Gosh, this target by the way

refers to something called free sugars, which include table sugar, sugar added by manufacturers

to meals or drinks, honey and fruit juice. It doesn't include the naturally occurring sugar

in milk or in whole fruit. The target is that we should get no more than 5 per cent of our calorie

intake from these free sugars, and neither adults nor children are anywhere near getting under

that target. But keen to get an alternative perspective, I spoke to Christopher Snowden,

the head of lifestyle economics at the free market think tank, the Institute for Economic Affairs.

As you might expect, he is against over-regulation and all kinds of nanny's statory.

So I asked him why sugar consumption has been rising? His answer? It hasn't.

Sugar consumption per capita seems to have peaked in around the 1960s and started falling from the

1970s. Even at the start of the 20th century, we were consuming about 41 kilograms per person,

currently we're consuming something in the region of 33 kilograms, and at its peak in the 1960s,

...