NYC Campaign Takes Fight Against Sugar Straight To The Source

NEW YORK — City officials have a strategy to get New Yorkers to eat less sugar: Take it out of their food. The city Department of Health announced a national campaign Friday to cut the amount of sugar in packaged foods 20 percent by 2025.

The National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative urges companies to adopt its sugar-reduction targets in 13 different food categories, from cookies and cakes to breakfast cereals and yogurt. In addition to the 20-percent target for food prodcuts, the campaign aims to achieve a 40-percent reduction in the sugar density of sugary drinks in the same time frame.

"By reformulating products to reduce the sugar content, manufacturers are improving the quality of foods before they reach supermarket shelves, making it easier for us to make healthy choices," Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the city's acting health commissioner, said in a statement.

The city isn't alone — about 100 local, state and national health agencies and organizations have joined the effort, including the New York State Department of Health and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic.

The initiative grew out of the city's previous campaign to reduce the amount of salt in foods that started under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009. Nearly 30 companies adopted that campaign's targets, and sodium levels among top-selling processed foods fell 6.8 percent between 2009 and 2015, the Health Department said.

Slightly more than two thirds of all packaged foods and drinks purchased in the U.S. contain added sugar, which is tied to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease and other health issues, according to the Health Department.

The department has tried to discourage New Yorkers from chugging sugary beverages through ad campaigns such as "The Sour Side of Sweet," which was launched last year. But the share of people who have at least one sugary drink a day ticked up slightly to 23 percent in the 2018 fiscal year, according to the latest Mayor's Management Report.

"Given that an estimated 40,000 people in the U.S. die from heart problems each year caused by consuming too many sugary drinks alone, we support making added sugars a priority for menu renovations, product innovation and reformulation," Nancy Brown, the CEO of the American Heart Association, said in a statement.

(Lead image: A Dunkin' Donuts employee displays a tray of "croissant doughnuts" in November 2014 in New York City. Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)