A sugar tax may have to be introduced to curb obesity rates, the chief medical officer for England has said.
Dame Sally Davies told a committee of MPs that unless the government was strong with food and drink manufacturers, it was unlikely they would reformulate their products.
She said she believed "research will find sugar is addictive", and that "we may need to introduce a sugar tax".
The food industry said it was working on reducing sugar in products.
Speaking to the health select committee, Dame Sally said: "We have a generation of children who, because they're overweight and their lack of activity, may well not live as long as my generation.
"They will be the first generation that live less, and that is of great concern."
Education urgedShe said being overweight had been "normalised", adding: "I worry that we have re-sized a women's dress size so that a size 14 now was a size 12 when I was student.
"We have to find a new way - not of ostracising people who are obese and making them feel bad about themselves - but somehow of helping them to understand this is pathological and will cause them harm."
She said she thought researchers would find that sugars were addictive, and the public needed to have "a big education" over how "calorie packed" some smoothies, fruit juices and carbonated drinks were.
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In November, the president of Coca-cola Europe was challenged on Newsnight about the amount of sugar in its drinks
She said: "People need to know one's fine, but not lots of them.
"We may need to move towards some form of sugar tax, but I hope we don't have to."
Earlier this year, doctors called for a soft drinks tax to reduce sugar intake.
'Voluntary pledges'The charity Sustain, which advises the government on the food and farming industry, says the UK consumes more than 5,727 million litres of sugary soft drinks a year. Adding a 20p tax for every litre sold would raise more than £1.1bn.
The Department of Health already has a "responsibility deal", which is a series of voluntary pledges by industry designed to tackle issues such as obesity.
Much of the focus of those pledges is on reducing salt and calorie count rather than sugar per se.
And ministers are also pushing ahead with front-of-pack labelling, which includes information about sugar, but again, this will be voluntary.
Front-and-back labelling will include a combination of colour coding and nutritional information that will be used to show how much fat, salt and sugar and how many calories are in each product.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "To help the nation to be healthier by eating fewer calories, including sugar, we are working with industry through the Responsibility Deal.
"This work has already delivered results but we have always been clear that, if food and drink companies fail to act, we will look at other options and are keeping all international evidence under review."
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