It was a surprise to read that new data suggests that we are drinking more sweetened drinks. My first though was that with the barrage of information about weight, diets and in particular low carb diets, that we would be consuming less simple sugars. So initially, I was rather suprised. However, I think that perhaps it may not be applicable to current habits.
Data from NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) from 1988-1994 was compared to that from 1999-2004. Analysis of the data showed that the amount of sweetened drinks that were consumed had increased.
Reading the paper describing the findings, I could not find exactly what the researchers were including in the term sugar. I am assuming it is table sugar (sucrose), fructose, glucose and sweeteners such as honey.
The increase in consumption of sweetened beverages was found in both those not trying to lose weight and those trying to lose weight. This means that even those that are trying to lose weight are drinking more sugar sweetened drinks.
For all ages the largest category of sweetened drinks in the most recent survey was soda, followed by fruit juice.
These findings were certainly very surprising to me at first. However, the data of the most recent NHANES is 1999-2004. So at least the early part of this period includes time when low carb dietary habits were still on the fringe. Most people who were actively trying to lose weight were on low fat diets. Additionally during this period of time the potential health problems of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener was only beginning to hit the mainstream media.
It will be very interesting to see whether the next NHANES (assuming that there will be one) shows a reversal of the increasing sugar consumption. Hopefully we have become smarter about what is in the beverages we consume. This might be true since the CDC has found that there was finally there has been no increase in the number of obese since 2004-2004.
photo credit: TheTruthAbout…
[tags]sweetened drinks, sugar, NHANES[/tags]
