A FAMILY of five from Brighton have been chosen from hundreds to take part in a national Sugar Smart 12-week challenge.

Each week, the Fitzgeralds will receive a simple and fun challenge that they will be taking on with gusto.

The aim is to raise the family’s understanding of how much sugar they are eating and how to find ways to reduce it.

Their progress and what they learn will be shared with families across the UK.

The goal is to help all parents make good food and drink choices so they help their own children grow up healthily.

Mother Louisa Fitzgerald, from Patcham, said: “Like most modern families, although we try really hard to eat a healthy, varied diet, sometimes the sheer pace of life gets in the way.

“As well as being a full time mum I run a workshop and party business for children so am always on the go.

“Rob is a paramedic, always shattered from commuting to and from London, working his 12-hour shifts and often relying on his emergency supply of sherbet lemons for a quick energy fix.”

Eating too much sugar is linked to so many health problems, both for children and for adults. The most obvious and visible problems are tooth decay and being overweight.

The less visible impacts, but often more serious later in life, are liver problems, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and strokes. Some scientists also link sugar to dementia and cancer.

Karen Bach, the founder of Brighton-based KalliKids which is organising the challenge, said: “Since I have started to look for sugar on the ingredients of products in the supermarket, I have been absolutely horrified to the point I have found myself saying things out loud in the shop.

“Not in a million years would I have expected smoked salmon or ham to have sugar in – but some of them do.

“It is now taking me longer to shop but I am deliberately avoiding products with sugar in when there is an alternative.”

Amazingly the average five-year-old eats their own body weight in sugar in a year.

If parents would like to join the families in the 12-week challenge, they can visit KalliKids.com/sugar-challenge.