The Australian Beverages Council supports greater understanding of what constitutes a balanced diet in support of the Australian Dietary Guidelines, including ensuring our diets are not too high in sugar.

Greater education on how to read and interpret labelling information about sugars (and all nutrients) is fully supported by Members.

As part of the recent consultation on the labelling of sugars on packaged foods and drinks, the Australian Beverages Council advocated for greater understanding of what constitutes a balanced diet through greater education on how to read and interpret food labelling. We also support added sugars being included in the Nutritional Information Panel.

While sugar can play a part in poor diet, the causes of overweight, obesity and associated chronic disease are highly complex, and the key determinants include, but are not limited to, interactions between genetic, metabolic, cultural, environmental, socioeconomic and behavioural factors.

The Australian Beverages Council supports reviews of the total diet in contributing to overweight, obesity and chronic disease and the total diet should always be considered with excess energy from all discretionary foods and beverages as one of many considerations.