Bathtub of sugary drinks a year: cancer warning over teenage intake

British teenagers drink almost a bathtub full of sugary drinks each year, Cancer Research UK has said, urging the government to do more to improve children’s diets.

Children aged 11 to 18 consumed on average 234 cans of sugar-sweetened soft drinks each year, CRUK said.

It amounts to almost a bath full and is more than double the figure for children aged between four and 10, whose average annual intake is 110 cans.

The data stems from a report carried out by the government’s health department and the Food Standards Agency charting the population’s diet and nutrition.

The study found a drop in the amount of sugar-sweetened soft drinks consumed by children, with a more significant fall recorded in the under-10s than teenagers.

Despite the improving figures, CRUK said there was an urgent need to further reduce children’s intake of sugary drinks and threw its support behind government proposals to introduce a sugar tax.

“The ripple effect of a small tax on sugary drinks is enormous, and it will give soft drinks companies a clear incentive to reduce the amount of sugar in drinks,” said Alison Cox, director of prevention at CRUK.

“But the government can do more to give the next generation a better chance.

“The UK has an epidemic on its hands and needs to act now.”

Theresa May revealed plans in August to introduce a sugar tax aimed at tackling childhood obesity, tooth decay and type 2 diabetes.

The sugar levy was first unveiled in March by the previous prime minister, David Cameron.

The tax on drinks with more than five grams of sugar per 100 millilitres will be introduced in two years, despite strong opposition from the drinks industry.

Soft drinks giant AG Barr, maker of Scotland’s Irn-Bru fizzy drink, in September said the move towards sugar-free drinks followed “negative media coverage of the sector”.

Barr said the drinks industry’s own action to reduce sugar rendered the sugar tax “an unnecessary measure in the context of government health policy objectives”.

Only a handful of countries such as France, South Africa and Mexico have attempted such a tax.

Bathtub of sugary drinks a year: cancer warning over teenage intake

Just two sugary drinks a day greatly increases diabetes risk, study shows

Drinking more than two sugary or artificially sweetened soft drinks per day greatly increases the risk of diabetes, research has shown.

The Swedish study found that consuming more than two 200ml drinks more than doubled the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. A serious soft drink habit consisting of at least five drinks daily boosted the likelihood of having the disease more than 10 times.

Soft drinks also increased the risk of a less common condition called latent autoimmune diabetes in Adults (Lada) which shares characteristics of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes, which requires constant insulin injections, is an autoimmune disease that wipes out insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The type 2 condition, which affects almost three million adults in the UK, alters the way the body responds to insulin and is related to obesity and lifestyle.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute studied levels of soft drink consumption in 2,874 Swedish adults and compared them with rates of diabetes.

Lead scientist Dr Josefin Edwall Lofvenborg said: “In this study we were surprised by the increased risk in developing autoimmune diabetes by drinking soft drinks. We next plan on investigating what could counter this risk, such as eating fatty fish.

“We are looking into this now using data from eight different countries across Europe.”

Soft drinks may increase the risk of both type 2 diabetes and Lada by influencing glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, said the researchers, writing in the European Journal of Endocrinology.

The study looked at relative risk – the degree by which a risk is raised from its normal level – and not “absolute” risk, the scientists pointed out.

It is estimated that one in 11 people worldwide have diabetes.

Just two sugary drinks a day greatly increases diabetes risk, study shows

Young children copy parents" sugary drinks habits, study suggests

Children aged four to eight whose parents regularly consume fizzy drinks are almost three times as likely to drink them as other children their age whose parents don’t, research suggests.

The Drink as I Do report suggests that young children copy the drinking behaviour of their parents, whatever they are consuming, but that the effect is most worrying when it comes to consumption of beverages linked to health problems.

Four- to eight-year-olds whose parents drank fizzy drinks were 192% more likely to consume them than other children their age. They were more than twice as likely (115%) to drink fruit juices if their parents consumed those and more than six times as likely (529%) to have smoothies if their parents indulged.

The report was compiled by Emma Derbyshire, children’s nutrition adviser to the Natural Hydration Council, a not-for-profit organisation backed by producers of bottled water.

She said:“Clearly children emulate their parents. With water, children were only drinking about three cups a day when they should be drinking between five and eight glasses. They’re under-consuming water in favour of calorific drinks. It’s a concern given problems with obesity and tooth decay. The thing is [for parents] not just to tell children to drink water but to do it themselves and ideally be seen to enjoy it.”

The report, based on responses from 1,000 parents and, in each case, one of their children, found that 37% of children do not drink water on any given day but this fell to13% when their parents drank water often.

Where parents drank squash, their children were 1.4 times more likely to drink them than other children and the “copycat” effect was even more pronounced for sports drinks (11 times more likely), although for the latter the small sample size means it should be treated with caution.

Children in the UK consume three times more sugar than is recommended, and soft drinks are the biggest source, accounting for 29% of the sugar intake of 11- to 18-year-olds and 16% for younger children. After concerns about the impact this is having on children’s health, a two-tier sugary drinks tax is to come into force next year based on the level of sugar per 100ml in a soft beverage.

Public Health England’s Eatwell guide, which was published earlier this year, advises that intakes of fruit juice and/or smoothies should be limited to a total of 150ml a day as they are a source of excess sugars.

Psychologist Emma Kenny, who is backing the report, said: “It’s that ‘do as I say not do as I do culture’. If you’re giving children water and drinking fizzy drinks, it’s natural for them to want to taste your drink and the moment the child can get their hands on a fizzy drink they will do so. You’re not going to stop them having other drinks but the tastes they form early on are compelling.”

Young children copy parents" sugary drinks habits, study suggests

Sugary drinks should carry health warnings

He highlighted a recent European study showing adults who drank more than one can of sugary fizzy drinks a day had a 22% higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than those who drank less than a can a month.

He said there was public support for warnings about added sugar as the food stuff was being “progressively demonised”.

He said: “Many other potentially harmful products already carry effective health warnings.

“For example, insecticides and other toxic products have long carried labels warning users to take extreme care.

“Similarly, cigarettes have gone from being socially acceptable to quite unacceptable after warning labels were implemented.

“The effectiveness of tobacco warnings and plain packaging is now accepted by almost everyone not linked to the industry.”

Prof Capewell said warning labels represented an “interesting natural experiment” that “may offer an effective new strategy to complement existing, potentially powerful interventions like marketing bans and sugary drinks duties”.

The call for labelling comes after research from the University of Glasgow was published earlier this year showing people are underestimating sugar levels in drinks which are perceived to be “healthy” options.

More than 2,000 people across the UK were asked to estimate how many teaspoons of sugar were in a variety of beverages.

While many overestimated the amount in fizzy drinks, they “significantly misjudged” the levels in milkshakes, smoothies and some fruit juices.

Gavin Partington, British Soft Drinks Association director general, said trying to blame one set of products for the “complex” problem of obesity was “misguided.”

He added that softdrinks have full nutrition labelling including calorie content printed on the pack.

“Obesity is a far more complex problem than Professor Capewell’s simplistic approach implies and trying to blame one set of products is misguided, particularly when they comprise a mere 3% of calories in the average diet,” he said.

“Soft drinks can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet and all products have full nutrition labelling, including calorie content, printed on pack so consumers and parents can make informed choices about what they and their children are drinking.

“Manufacturers have been taking steps to reduce the calorie content of their drinks over many years – more than 60% of drinks now contain no added sugar.

“In addition, the leading producers and retailers with market share of around 75% are now signed up to the responsibility deal to reduce calories even more, backed by a significant increase in advertising and marketing expenditure on low and no calorie drinks.”

Sugary drinks should carry health warnings

Day-to-day sugary drink could set off fatal heart ailment

1 sugar-sweetened drink a day is ample to improve the threat of dying from cardiovascular ailment affecting the heart and arteries.

Consuming also several sugary sweets, desserts and drinks can triple your probabilities of dying from heart ailment, a review has proven.

Scientists in the US identified a striking association between the proportion of every day calories supplied by sugar-laden meals and heart condition death costs.

One particular sugar-sweetened drink a day was adequate to enhance the danger of dying from cardiovascular condition affecting the heart and arteries. For folks acquiring a quarter of their calories from added sugar, the danger tripled in contrast with individuals whose sugar contribution was less than 10%.

Sugar consumption doubled the probability of death from heart ailment in the prime fifth of the selection studied.

The researchers exclusively centered on extra sugar in the diet plan – that is, sugar additional in the processing or preparing of foods, rather than normal sources.

Dietary guidelines from the World Well being Organisation recommend that extra sugar ought to make up less than 10% of total calorie consumption. A lot of processed foods and beverages are packed with sugar. A single can of fizzy drink, for instance, may possibly contain 35 grammes of sugar offering 140 calories.

The new research, led by Dr Quanhe Yang, from the Centres for Condition Manage and Prevention in Atlanta, utilised US national overall health survey data to establish how significantly extra sugar people had been consuming.

Among 2005 and 2010, added sugar accounted for at least 10% of the calories consumed by much more than 70% of the US population, the study showed.

Close to a tenth of grownups obtained a quarter or much more of their calories from extra sugar.

The information have been matched against heart illness mortality over a typical period of 14.six many years, throughout which a total of 831 CVD deaths had been recorded.

Writing in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the authors concluded: “Our findings indicate that most US grownups consume more additional sugar than is recommended for a healthful diet regime.

“A higher percentage of calories from additional sugar is connected with considerably elevated danger of CVD mortality.”

Commenting on the outcomes in the journal, Dr Laura Schmidt from the University of California at San Francisco, wrote: “We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in analysis on the overall health effects of sugar, one particular fuelled by extremely substantial costs of additional sugar overconsumption in the American public.

“In sum, the research by Yang et al contributes a assortment of new findings to the growing entire body of investigation on sugar as an independent chance aspect in persistent disease.”

British expert Dr Nita Forouhi, from the Medical Study Council Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University, named for “clear front of pack labelling of sugar content material” to aid customers purchasing foods merchandise.

She added: “Whilst policy makers deliberate on the pros and cons of a sugary drinks tax, there is a public health action significantly less talked about: a health warning on soft drinks with substantial sugar articles, recommending to restrict consumption as part of a healthy diet plan.”

Professor Naveed Satta, from the British Heart Foundation Glasgow Cardiovascular Study Centre at the University of Glasgow, explained: “We have recognized for years about the dangers of extra saturated unwanted fat intake, an observation which led the foods business to replace unhealthy fats with presumed ‘healthier’ sugars in several meals items.

“Nevertheless, the current study, possibly more strongly than preceding ones, suggests that individuals whose diet program is substantial in additional sugars may possibly also have an elevated chance of heart attack. Of course, sugar per se is not damaging – we want it for the body’s power wants – but when consumed in excess it will contribute to bodyweight acquire and, in turn, may accelerate heart disease.”

He extra: “Assisting individuals reduce not only their excessive unwanted fat intake, but also refined sugar intake, could have major overall health positive aspects such as lessening obesity and heart attacks. The initial target, now taken up by an growing number of nations, is to tax sugar-wealthy drinks.”

The research showed that the typical proportion of everyday calories obtained from added sugar rose from 15.7% in 1988-1994 to 16.eight% in 1999-2004. It decreased to 14.9% in 2005-2010.

Day-to-day sugary drink could set off fatal heart ailment