Panorama: The trouble with sugar BBC One, Sunday, 10 October 2004 at 22:15 BST

As obesity levels in the UK rise alarmingly the Department of Health has issued a clear warning that after attempts to tackle the amount of salt in our diet, sugar will be next in line.

We eat far too much of it for our own good - well over the 10 per cent of our daily diet that is recommended.

In May the World Health Organisation warned that there is a direct connection between eating too much sugar and a whole host of diseases linked to obesity. The sugar industry fought them all the way.

Panorama investigates just how hard the industry has fought over the years to protect its profits and to undermine scientific evidence that sugar has an adverse effect on health.

We uncover remarkable evidence showing the sugar and food lobbies secretly influenced a major United Nations scientific study into how much sugar we should be eating.

And as the government decides whether to work with the food industry or to force it into action, Panorama shows just how easy it is to 'hide' sugar in our food. We join the rush to sell us apparently healthy products.

Fit and Fruity is Panorama's own lunchbox snack, high in sugar, low in information on the pot. But can we sell it to a group of children and their health conscious Mums?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3713508.stm

Production team:
Reporter: Betsan Powys
Producer: Huw Marks
Editor: Mike Robinson
Deputy Editors: Andrew Bell, Frank Simmonds