Pauline Latham OBE MP joined Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver to discuss diabetes and his Sugar Rush Campaign to tackle high sugar content in soft drinks.
Mid-Derbyshire’s MP, who is a long standing campaigner on diabetes, met Mr Oliver in Parliament at a meeting of the All Party-Parliamentary Group on Diabetes. The Group, which is a cross-party collective of MP’s , focuses on raising awareness of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and engaging parliamentarians, clinicians, non-governmental organisations and patients. Mrs Latham was recently appointed Chair of the Diabetes Think Tank which brings together similar groups to discuss policy initiatives to tackle diabetes.
The event in Parliament focused on Mr Oliver’s Sugar Rush campaign and his calls for Government to take action on the issue as part of a National Obesity Strategy, which is due to be published later this year.
Mrs Latham joined other MP’s with Mr Oliver to discuss the effects of high sugar diets and people with diabetes and hear his proposals for turning around the trend in numbers of people with the disease. Jamie Oliver’s Sugar Rush campaign has already been credited with highlighting hidden sugar content in popular drinks such as Ribena and Diet Coke which have 13 and 14 tea spoons of sugar in them respectively. The recommended daily allowance for an adult is seven.
Speaking after the event Pauline Latham OBE MP said: “It was a real pleasure to meet Jamie Oliver and talk to him about tackling diabetes, an issue I care about deeply. Like Jamie I will be waiting to see the Government’s National Obesity Strategy and know that Public Health England is looking at high sugar contents in people’s diets. I do not generally support tax rises but the evidence in this case is clear, a levy would make sense and it is disappointing to see the idea is currently being dismissed”.