[Courtesy of Iclickart ]
South Korea's individual sugar consumption is still below international standards, but health authorities are taking pre-emptive steps to curb obesity especially among young people.
Processed food and carbonated drinks were the targets of a campaign pushed by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which unveiled new measures on Thursday to reduce sugar intake.
Official health data showed South Koreans consume 44.7 grams of sugar a day, which is still below the amount recommended by the World Health Organization.
But obesity has been on the steady rise. Nearly half of young Koreans were found to consumed too much sugar, leaving them vulnerable to obesity, high-blood pressure and diabetes.
Minister Sohn Mun-ki called for a healthy diet and recipes using less sugar, saying the government's goal is to keep individual sugar consumption at ten percent of daily calorie intake.
He urged food companies to take voluntary measures and come up with low-sugar products while substituting sugar with artificial sweeteners. His office promised to strengthen regulations on ingredient labeling on products that contain much sugar.
"We are taking pre-emptive measure as the consumption of sugar from processed food has been rising," Sohn said, adding South Korea would not introduce a sugar tax.
A recent WHO report showed the number of diabetes patients worldwide had nearly quadrupled to 422 million in 2014 from 108 million in 1980.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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