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​Campaigners Want To Ban Sharing Bags Of Sweets And Chocolate

​Campaigners Want To Ban Sharing Bags Of Sweets And Chocolate

Action on Sugar wants to ban the sharing bags because they encourage people to 'eat far too much sugar and chocolate'.

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

In a devastating blow to anyone who's managed to eat their way through an entire bag of delicious Bitsa Wispa or Twirl Bites (as in, all of us), health campaigners are now calling for sharing bags of sweets and chocolate to be banned.

We know. Don't they realise we have hangovers, breakups, Netflix series and, erm, an average Tuesday afternoon to get through?

Action on Sugar wants to ban the sharing bags because they encourage people to 'eat far too much sugar and chocolate', revealing that a recent study found that more than one in five adults (22 percent) eat the sharing bags alone in one sitting - with the figure rising to 35 percent among 16 to 24-year-olds.

The pressure group has also said it wants a complete ban on all confectionery price promotions, along with the introduction of a 20 percent sugar tax, to help fight alarming levels of obesity levels in the UK.

Kawther Hashem, Researcher at Action on Sugar, said: "Companies and supermarkets are constantly finding ways to push more sugary products - which are contributing to the high rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay in the UK.

"These types of price promotions encourage us to eat far too much sugar and calories and should be banned.

"It is time retailers are pressed to act responsibly and no longer profit at the expense of our health."

Graham MacGregor, chairman of Action on Sugar and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary University, added: "It's shocking that food companies are being allowed to exploit consumers, by manipulating them into purchasing larger size bags of chocolate confectionery on the cheap.

"Prime Minister Theresa May is letting companies get away with this despite pledging to help the socially deprived when she first became the Prime Minster.

"Companies must be held accountable and reminded to reconsider their ethical and corporate responsibility."

Cadbury / Haribo

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "Current advertising restrictions in the UK on junk food are among the toughest in the world, including a ban on advertising junk food in children's media.

"Alongside this we are delivering the most ambitious childhood obesity plan in the world-taxing sugary drinks, funding further research and cutting sugar and calories in food before it hits shelves and plates.

"But it's very early days tackling a problem decades in the making, and we have not ruled out further action if the right results are not seen."

If anything, we're slightly glad they're pointing the finger at the sharing bags, rather than our own relentless greed. Yeah, that's why we piled the pounds on over Christmas. Absolutely.

We definitely haven't ever looked at a bag of M&Ms that claims to be 'Great for sharing!' and laughed 'Yeah, sure!' at it, as if the joke had never been made before.

Party-size? More like just-for-me-size. It'd be hard to break from that mindset, for sure...

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Food, UK News, SUgar tax, Sweets, Food And Drink, Chocolate, UK