The average child in the UK consumes three times their recommended allowance of sugar by the end of the day – with vast amounts of it eaten before 9am, Public Health England has warned.
A typical child’s breakfast contains over 3 cubes of sugar, over half the recommended daily maximum of five cubes of sugar for four to six-year-olds and six cubes for seven to ten-year-olds.
Cereals, fruit juices, chocolate spreads, jam and honey were among the chief culprits fuelling early morning sugar intake, PHE said.
The average breakfast intake mounts to more than 1,000 sugar cubes a year, they said.
The figures were published amid record levels of obesity among children, and warnings that the trend has reached “a state of emergency”.
Official data shows that more than one in five children start primary school overweight or obese, rising to more than a third by the time they start secondary school.