Article by the Drummond Team
The campaign group Action on Sugar is demanding a ban on freakshakes and all milkshakes with more than 300 calories.
It surveyed milkshakes sold in restaurants and fast food shops in the UK and found they contained “grotesque levels of sugar and calories”.
Freakshakes are milkshakes that also contain chocolates, sweets, cake, cream and sauce. Freakshakes were invented in Australia, but have become increasingly popular in the UK in recent years and with their photogenic qualities are a popular posting on social media.
For example, the Unicorn Freakshake is made with grape and raspberry flavoured ice cream, blackcurrant jelly pieces, milk, freshly whipped cream and topped with marshmallow, skittles and almond macaroon. Sound tempting? – it came top of the survey with 39 teaspoons of sugar and 1,280 calories! – that’s more than half the daily recommended amount of calories for an adult and over six times the amount of sugar recommended for seven to 10-year-olds. And in terms of sugar, it is the equivalent of drinking more than five cans of cola. The British Heart Foundation calculates an average 25-year-old would need to jog for nearly three hours or vacuum the house for five hours to burn off the calories!
The researchers found that many other shakes contain more than half the daily recommended amount of calories for an adult. They say that of the 46 products included in the survey with nutrition labelling available online, all would receive a red/high label for excessive levels of sugar per serving.
Action on Sugar, which is made up of specialists concerned with sugar and its effects on health, are calling for mandatory traffic light-coloured nutrition labelling across all menus.
The government is currently consulting on menu calorie labelling for these.
Sources: BBC.co.uk/The Guardian
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