Sugar Consumption on Rise Worldwide: Study

Fri Nov 21, 2003

By Merritt McKinney

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Our diet keeps getting sweeter, due in large part to the popularity of sugary soft drinks and other sweetened beverages, according to a new study.

North Carolina researchers report that the average daily consumption of sugar and other calorie-containing sweeteners worldwide jumped 74 calories from 1962 to 2000.

In the U.S., the jump in sweet calories was even greater - 83 calories per day from 1977 to 1996. Most of those extra sweet calories - 80 percent - came from sugary soft drinks and fruit drinks, researchers report in the November issue of the journal Obesity Research.

"This research provides a clear sense of the enormity of the increase in added caloric sweeteners in our diet, much of which is potentially hidden," co-author Dr. Barry M. Popkin at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told Reuters Health.

Even though Popkin said "there is limited research on the role of added sugar in weight gain," he noted that several studies, "all point toward the role of soft drinks and fruit drinks as playing a key role in weight gain in the U.S. and Europe."

According to Popkin, "In a world where obesity is increasingly the key nutrition-related problem, elimination of the extra calories that come from the food industrys adding these caloric sweeteners to our diet is one critical dimension that needs to be added," Popkin said.

Popkin and colleague Samara Joy Nielsen studied dietary data from 103 countries in 1962 and 127 in 2000. They also analyzed data from three national U.S. surveys conducted from 1977 to1978, 1989 to 1991 and 1994 to 1998.

Worldwide, the percentage of total calories that came from sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other caloric sweeteners in 2000 was 32 percent higher than in 1962.

Most of this worldwide change, the authors assert, was due to population shift to urban areas. The researchers note that people living in cities have greater access to processed foods that are high in sugar.

In the U.S., the rise in caloric sweetener consumption means that as of 1996, 30 percent of all carbohydrate calories came from sugar and other sweeteners. Of the 83 calorie per day increase, 54 calories came from soft drinks and 13 calories came from sugared fruit drinks.

The results show that sugary calories are replacing calories from higher-fiber foods, according to Popkin and Nielsen. Food and drinks with added sugar or other caloric sweeteners provide energy but few other nutrients, according to the researchers.

Many experts, they note, believe that the surge in sugary drinks has contributed to the drop in milk consumption in the U.S.

SOURCE: Obesity Research, November 2003

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...onsumption_dc_1

DON'T LOOK AT US!!!! It's not our fault!!!

Rising beef prices, maybe, but not the sugar.

Gee, I thought sugar was fat free? It couldn't possibly cause weight gain...

The scary thing is I've actually seen bags of candy [the kind that is 100% Sugar] that say in Big Bold Letters "NATURALLY FAT AND CHOLESTEROL FREE" as if Pixie Stix and Cotton Candy were somehow a Health Food.

They might as well mark them "Naturally Low in Cyanide."

To calculate for the calorie-conscious, that is approximately 30,295 calories of sugar at 3500 calories per pound, which would be a potential gain of 8.65 lbs per year for every person who had a stable weight before adding the extra sugar.

Five years later, and the average person could have gained 43.25 extra lbs, GERD, high triglycerides and cholesterol, and would probably be making their way to this website, not realizing that this weight gain came directly from the sugary (but low-fat) food and beverages they were so fond of.

83 calories is not that much... it's a little over a slice of bread, less than an apple or a banana, and approx 6 oz of soda or fruit juice, a little less than a standard serving of breakfast cereal.

But coming from pure sugar is not a good thing... not to mention in what proportion the rest of the diet's sugars are going.

Well potatoes should be marked "Naturally Low in Arsenic," (I believe that's the correct poison in them).

I have heard that if the potato were introduced in modern days that it would not pass FDA approval because of the arsenic content. My HS science teacher said that if you leave your potatoes out and you see them getting green, the green layer apparently is more highly concentrated with that poison.

As a society we've developed a certain tolerance to arsenic.

Although some will say that it's perfectly safe:

http://www.1to1vitamins.com/news/2000/artl541.html

Here are some facts about arsenic:

http://www.state.me.us/dhs/eng/wate...nic%20Facts.htm


So, do you still want fries with that?