Available energy from soft drinks: more than the sum of its parts

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between energy available from sugarsweetened beverages (SSB) and total energy availability. Design: Ecological study using food availability data from 1976 to 2007 Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) contribute to weight gain and poor health. Reducing SSB consumption in randomised controlled trials decreases energy intake and BMI (1) . SSB consumption is positively associated with energy consumption, weight gain, overweight and obesity, and type-2 diabetes (2,3) . Levying a tax on SSB has been proposed as a strategy to reduce their consumption, and thereby reduce energy intake and ultimately obesity (4) . SSB consumption displaces healthy dietary elements and leads to poor diet quality, and decreasing SSB consumption reduces overall energy intake (5,6) . We evaluated the relationship between energy availability from SSB and total energy availability from food availability data in Canada collected over 30 years. Methods Data sourceThe Canadian Socio-Economic Information Management System (CANSIM) is Statistics Canada's computerised database of time series covering a wide area of the social and economic aspects of Canadian life (7) . The CANSIM database includes information on a variety of topics such as national accounts, labour, manufacturing, construction, trade, agriculture and finance. Food availability information in the CANSIM database is based on food disappearance and accounts for wastage in production and storage. The data are not the energy consumed and do not account for wastage in the home. Data from 1976 to 2007 were used in these analyses (7) . Energy availabilityEnergy availability is obtained by multiplying the quantity of a food by its unit energy content. For instance, the total available servings of ice cream in a year are multiplied by the energy content of one serving. Total available energy is obtained by summing the available energy over all available foods. Average daily per capita available energy is determined by dividing the total available daily energy in any year by 365 and the estimated Canadian population on 1 July of that year. Soft drinksInformation on sugar-sweetened soft drink availability in CANSIM is obtained from total domestic sales, as provided by the Canadian Soft Drink Association. The information collected for sugar-sweetened soft drink

The nutritional content of supermarket beverages: a cross-sectional analysis of New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK

“…This may be partly due to a change in guidance in the UK for serving size of fruit juice (now 150 ml), as well as a change to recommendations for free sugars consumption in line with the WHO recommendations that sugar intake should be less than 10 %, and ideally less than 5 %, of the total daily energy intake ( 29 ) . Since carbonated sodas were identified as the main contributor to free sugar intakes in the UK population ( 33 ) and public health campaigners have worked to draw attention to the need for reductions in this area, this may explain why manufacturers have worked to reduce the amount of free sugars in their products, as well as offering more low/zero-calorie no-added-sugar alternatives, and changes to recommended serving sizes on packages.…”

“…Multiple studies support strong associations between availability, purchasing and consumption of SSB (33,34) . A wastage of 30-40 % is predicted to occur between availability and consumption, but generally the higher the availability of SSB, the higher the population consumption (35) .…”

Association between Intake of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentration among Premenopausal Women

“…In the United States, a citizen consumes on average 12 servings of soda per week of which 58% contain sugar [2]. In Canada, soft drinks have been the leading beverage choice between 1980 and 2000 [1] and they remain so today [3]. This excessive intake of sugar-sweetened beverages may have several adverse effects on human health such as diabetes, hypertension [2], obesity, cardiovascular diseases [4], low bone mineral density [5], hypocalcaemia [6,7] and some types of cancer [8,9,10,11].…”

Sugar‐Sweetened Beverage Consumption Among a Subset of Canadian Youth

“…A recent national survey of 4‐ to 18‐year‐old Canadians indicates that beverages comprise approximately 20% of total calories consumed by children . Canada has seen an increase of 37 kcal in available energy from soft drinks per day per capita between 1976 and 2007 …”

“…12 Canada has seen an increase of 37 kcal in available energy from soft drinks per day per capita between 1976 and 2007. 13 Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption has risen concurrently with obesity rates in Canada and internationally, and has been linked to high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. [14][15][16] Consumption of SSBs may promote weight gain in several ways, including a direct increase in caloric consumption, appetite stimulation or decreased levels of satiation, adverse metabolic effects, and replacement of milk and other beneficial nutrients in the diet.…”