Diabetes Ireland today launched a Christmas awareness campaign to encourage Irish families to become more aware of the amount of free sugars* they may be consuming over the festive season and help them to cut down on their sugar intake by making a few simple changes to their lifestyle.

Sinead Powell, Senior Dietitian with Diabetes Ireland says ‘we all know we need to watch our sugar intake, but many of us would be surprised to learn how high in free sugars some of these festive treats are, with the average Christmas mince pie containing up to 5.5 tsps. of sugar it is important for people to get ‘Sugar Smart’. Making small changes like swapping sugary drinks for diet drinks, filling up on seasonal vegetable or fruits and going for a family walk after Christmas dinner instead of sitting on the couch with a tin of sweets can all help to greatly reduce your sugar intake this Christmas.

Food high in sugars and calories are playing an increasingly active part of our festive celebrations. We are surrounded by supermarket Christmas food specials and our coffee shops are filled with festive drinks menus. Unfortunately a lot of these festive treats can be very high in free sugars and high intakes of these sugars are associated with type 2 diabetes, dental decay, obesity and increase the risk of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and cancers.

Visit www.diabetes.ie/sugar-smart/ for more tips on how you and your family can get ‘Sugar Smart’ this Christmas, you can also take the ‘Sugar Smart’ quiz and find out just how ‘Sugar Smart’ you and your family really are.