Not so innocent

You cannot see from the front exactly how much sugar a package contains. A carton or bottle of a drink often seems innocent, but a 200 ml carton of apple juice can easily contain 5 sugar cubes. That is just as much sugar as in a glass of soft drink. Even drinks with claims such as ‘no added sugars’ and ‘naturally sweet’ can contain a considerable amount of sugar. Claims such as ‘source of calcium’ or 'with extra vitamin C' can also mislead you. Therefore, read the label on the back to see exactly how much sugar it contains. Or scan the product with our ‘Kies Ik Gezond?’ app.

Sugar is sugar

The body does not notice any difference between sugar from fruit juice, concentrated fruit juice or soft drinks. That is why sugary drinks are not included in the Wheel of Five. Drinking a lot of sugary drinks increases the risk of overweight and type 2 diabetes. The advice is therefore to drink as little of them as possible. Of course, having one occasionally does no harm. But if you drink them often and in large quantities, you unknowingly consume a lot of sugar.

Five tips for schools

Would you like to help parents, children and young people make more conscious choices? The Netherlands Nutrition Centre gives schools five tips to get started:

  1. Order the sugar-cube posters and put them up in a central location.
  2. Pay attention to healthy and sustainable food in class, for example with Smaaklessen (primary education) or Weet wat je eet (secondary education and vocational education). This way, you can create your own sugar-cube poster with your class.
  3. Draw up a nutrition policy involving parents and pupils.
  4. Review the range of drinks available with school meals, in the cafeteria and in vending machines using the cafeteria checklist.
  5. Encourage drinking water by providing water refill points.