New Change4Life campaign encourages healthier eating

Public Health England has launched a new Change4Life campaign to coincide with the new year, aimed at encouraging people to adopt healthier dietary habits.

The initiative will help the public to make easy swaps to cut sugar and fat from their everyday snacks, drinks and meals this January.

For example, they could trade sugary drinks for diet options, sugar-free variants or low-fat milk, as well as switching to reduced-fat cheese and butter, selecting plainer and less sugary cereals or moving away from drinking whole milk.

Coinciding with the campaign will be adverts running on TV, radio and online highlighting the amounts of sugar in everyday food and drinks – a two-litre soft drink bottle, for example, can include up to 52 sugar cubes.

Public health minister Jane Ellison said: "We know how difficult it can be to make big changes to your diet, which is why this new Change4Life campaign suggests small changes as a step in the right direction."

This comes after the government previously launched a Change4Life campaign to coincide with the start of the school year in September 2013, which was aimed primarily at families with children.