Citation
Popkin, Barry M. & Hawkes, Corinna (2016). The Sweetening of the Global Diet, Particularly Beverages: Patterns, Trends, and Policy Responses for Diabetes Prevention. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 4(2), 174-186. PMCID: PMC4733620Abstract
Over the past several decades, the world has become increasingly aware of the role of added sugar, particularly in beverages, as a major driver of increased weight gain and diabetes. This is particularly the case in higher income countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia where sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) levels and trends were upwards in the 20th century. This was echoed in a recent editorial in this journal titled “Sugar intake: lowering the bar”. In this paper we report from a new dataset to update what is known about global trends in sales of beverages with caloric sweeteners (CS) and low calorie sweeteners (LCS) with a focus on the understudied countries outside of North America, Europe and Australasia. We include at caloric soft drinks, juice drinks and sports and energy drinks. We also provide an in depth analysis of trends for CS and LCS in both foods and beverages in the USA. We then review the types of policy responses that have been put into place around the world. We start by providing an overview of our understanding of the role of CS and LCS) on weight gain, diabetes, and other cardiometabolic problems.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(15)00419-2Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2016Journal Title
Lancet Diabetes & EndocrinologyAuthor(s)
Popkin, Barry M.Hawkes, Corinna