Matt Lawler, practice principal at Peelhouse Dental in Widnes says sugar consumption among the young is leading to a growing health and tooth decay crisis. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool city region dentist Matt Lawler is backing a council drive to cut the amount of sugar consumed by children.

Mr Lawler, practice principal at Peelhouse Dental in Widnes says sugar consumption among the young is leading to a growing health and tooth decay crisis.

In June, Public Health Liverpool stepped up its ‘War on Sugar’ by revealing some of the most popular breakfast cereal brands analysis shows that some of the brands, including Frosties, Cocopops and Coco Shreddies, contain between 2.4 and 3.7 sugar cubes per serving.

Too much sugar in a child’s diet can lead to obesity, tooth decay, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some common cancers in the future.

Mr Lawler, who sees first hand how damaging too much sugar can be to children’s teeth, is fully behind the campaign.

He told YBNews: “I welcome Public Health Liverpool’s stance this week. In fact, I’m delighted they have been so damning.

“It’s outrageous, for example, that more than a fifth of reception class pupils in England were classified as overweight or obese in 2015-16, with that figure rising to a third for year six children.

“In fact, from the same recent study, more than 23% of year six children are obese in Liverpool and almost 40% are overweight or obese.

Click to read Matt Lawler’s blog – ‘Pure, white and deadly’

“In addition and i’m acutely aware of this, almost a third of five-year-olds in Liverpool have decayed, missing or filled teeth, with two children a day under the age of 10 having to be admitted to hospital to get teeth removed. 

“That’s very sad, yet we can do something about it.

“I’ve spoken regularly in media about these issues, especially over the past 12 months and we need a campaign across the whole of our North West region to follow suit raising awareness.”