Cutting down the sugar content of packed foods may save millions of US lives

Summary: Overconsumption of sugars or fast-absorbing carbs is one of the major contributors to the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Most of the sugar intake is through the consumption of packed food items. Thus, researchers are proposing that one way to reduce diabetes and related complications is by motivating the industry to reduce the sugar content of their food products voluntarily. The new study shows that even a moderate cut of 20% of added sugars to packed foods may save millions of lives in the US each year.

 Sugar is thought to be first made more than two millennia back in the Indian subcontinent. From there, it spread to other parts of the world. However, in ancient times, sugar was highly expensive and not commonly available. Thus, people around the globe used honey and other natural sweeteners.

However, with the advent of the industrial age, everything changed. Sugar finally became widely and cheaply available, and the global appetite for it kept increasing. Nowadays, sugar is added to numerous readily available food items. It is highly addictive, rich in easy to absorb calories. Its abuse is associated with multiple health risks.

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Regretfully, increased consumption of ultra-processed foods has also contributed considerably to its use. Today, most of the sugar consumed by individuals may be in packed foods. Thus, most may not even know about how much sugar they are consuming. It is easy to overlook sugar content in cookies, cakes, and so on1.

Studies show that in the western world, most of the energy intake is now from ultra-processed foods. But what is even more worrisome is that sugar is the major component in most of these food items.

A small amount of sugar consumption is indeed safe. However, the human body is not made to get most of its energy supply from fast-absorbing carbs.

There are other lifestyle factors contributing to the overconsumption of ultra-processed foods. These foods are commonly and cheaply available. More importantly, they may not require any cooking before consumption. On the contrary, using natural ingredients need spending time on cooking.

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All this means that packed foods and ultra-processed food items are here to stay. Getting rid of them may not be possible. However, what is possible is improving their content. It is possible to control the amounts of added sugars and salts in these foods. Transitioning to healthy and yet industrially produced food is still a possibility.

Researchers are not proposing giving up sugar consumption. Instead, they are proposing a reasonable reduction to the amounts of added sugars in processed foods.

In a study published in the journal Circulation, researchers from Tufts University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene teamed up to understand how reducing sugar may help improve health outcomes in the US. The National Institutes of Health sponsored the study.

The researchers found that reducing about 20% of sugar content in packed foods may help prevent 2.48 million events of strokes, heart attacks, and cardiac arrests. It may prevent around half a million cardiovascular deaths and prevent 750 000 people from progressing to diabetes. It may also help save about 160 billion in additional healthcare costs and considerably improve the quality of life2.

Therefore, researchers are suggesting that manufacturers of packed foods should make voluntary efforts to reformulate their foods. They should consider using other ways of improving the palatability of their food items.

Researchers think that such voluntary reformulation of packed foods would have a far greater impact than other measures. For example, increasing the sugar tax does not seem to work, nor does labeling the sugar content in foods help considerably. Banning high sugar food items is also not an option. 

Thus, the best way forward to prevent epidemics of diabetes, cardiovascular events, and other non-communicable diseases could be through the industry’s initiative of reformulating their food items. 

References

1. Martínez Steele E, Baraldi LG, Louzada ML da C, Moubarac JC, Mozaffarian D, Monteiro CA. Ultra-processed foods and added sugars in the US diet: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study. BMJ Open. 2016;6(3):e009892. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009892
2. Shangguan S, Mozaffarian D, Sy S, et al. Health Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of Achieving the National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative Voluntary Sugar Reduction Targets in the United States: A Microsimulation Study. Circulation. 2021;144(17):1362-1376. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.053678