Research shows that fizzy drinks contain 'alarming' but variable amounts of sugar -- suggesting that levels could be cut without technical problems. Meanwhile, teenagers are drinking 'a bathtub' of them every year.
Sugary, fizzy drinks are known to health researchers as 'CSSBs' -- carbonated, sugar-sweetened beverages. Research just published in BMJ Open by Sustain member Action on Sugar investigated the sugar content of CSSBs available in UK supermarkets.
The free sugars content in CSSBs was found to be high, and there was a large variation in sugar content between different flavours and within the same type of flavour. These findings demonstrate that the amount of free sugars added to CSSBs could be reduced without technical problems. Action on Sugar argues that there is an urgent need to set incremental targets for the reduction of free sugars in fizzy drinks.
Meanwhile, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) used data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey to calculate that British teenagers drink almost a bathtub full of sugary drinks on average every year. CRUK has backed Sustain's calls for a 20p a litre tax on sugary drinks, to prevent 3.7 million cases of obesity over the next decade -- which in turn would reduce the incidence of cancer, which is linked to obesity and diabetes.
Read the Action on Sugar paper here, CRUK's report here, and find out more here about Sustain's work to hold the Government to its promise to introduce a sugary drinks tax.
Published Friday 25 November 2016
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
