CSPI calls on Trump admin to focus on less sugar, not different sugar

Swapping sugars won't reduce diet related disease

Today, the Center for Science in the Public Interest wrote to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, and FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Kyle Diamantas recommending seven strategies that FDA can employ to reduce added sugar consumption by empowering consumers with the information they need to make healthy choices, addressing misleading marketing, and improving the healthfulness of the U.S. food supply.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy has recognized the need to reduce Americans’ consumption of added sugars, calling sugar “poison,” and highlighting the well-established link between excess added sugar intake and childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the recent report of the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which he chairs.

President Trump also recently made headlines by announcing that Coca-Cola would start sweetening its products with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, a move celebrated by Secretary Kennedy as a win. “You’ll see.” Trump tweeted, “It’s just better!” Cane sugar may suit the President’s taste, but nutrition scientists widely agree that swapping one type of sugar for another will do nothing to improve health.

With today’s letter, CSPI is calling on HHS and FDA to get serious about sugar by focusing on sugar reduction, not trying to make sugary drinks taste “better.”

The sugar reduction strategies recommended in the letter from CSPI include:

Establishing added sugar reduction targets for packaged and restaurant food, similar to FDA’s existing sodium reduction targets
Mandating front-of-package nutrition labels that highlight when foods are high in added sugar
Encouraging companies to label their foods “healthy” when they meet FDA’s newly-updated definition of the term
Requiring chain restaurants to disclose how much added sugar is in their menu items
Defining “low added sugar” claims and taking enforcement action to prevent claims like “lightly sweetened” and “less sweet” on products that are actually high in added sugar
Ensuring shoppers can access full nutrition and ingredient information when buying groceries online
Addressing misleading marketing of toddler formulas, which contain added sugar and are not recommended for young children

In the letter, CSPI implores federal officials: “To make real progress, our country needs policies to reduce added sugars overall, consumed in beverages and across the American diet. ... As you consider strategies to address the high rates of diet-related chronic diseases in the United States, we urge you to act quickly on the policy recommendations outlined in this letter to encourage food industry reformulation and to enable consumers to access the information they need to make healthy choices for themselves and their families.”

FDA has not yet released its regulatory agenda, but recently updated the list of FDA Foods Program Guidance Under Development. This list had previously included guidance to define low added sugar claims, but that project has been removed. The MAHA commission is expected to release its “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy” report (a follow-on to the “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment” report) by mid-August.

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