A DUNBAR family have been chosen as one of eight out of almost 200 applicants to take part in a national challenge to pioneer ways to reduce their sugar intake.

Each week for 12 weeks, mum Laura and young sons Kruz and Junior will receive a simple and fun challenge as part of the Sugar Smart project.

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

Laura said: “My two sons and I all love chocolate and sweet things but I want us to eat less sugar and more healthy things.

“We are really up for the challenge to learn about being Sugar Smart and looking forward to the fun tasks.”

The family, who have lived in Dunbar for almost two years, signed up for the challenge earlier this year.

Laura, 26, who lives on the town’s Floors Terrace, said: “I just got an email one day asking if I would be interested in doing it and I thought it would be something fun for the kids, especially Kruz being that bit older.

“It lets them learn about this kind of thing.”

Their progress and learnings will be shared with families all across the UK. The goal is to help all parents make good food and drink choices so that they help their own children grow up healthily.

Eating too much sugar is linked to various health problems in both children and adults, including tooth decay and being overweight.

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

Karen Bach, founder of KalliKids, which is running the sugar challenge alongside Sugar Smart, Jamie Oliver’s kids’ sugar initiative, 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.”

Research shows that the average five-year-old in the UK eats their own body weight in sugar in a year.

Karen added: “Our KalliKids mission is to help parents make the right choices for their children and to take pride in nurturing their children to become fulfilled adults.

“We do this every day through accrediting children’s activities and the Sugar Smart challenge is a fantastic, additional, way to help parents everywhere and every day.”