Sugar-sweetened beverages : adults are struggling to reduce their contributions

Kzenon/epictura

Published the 20.07.2017 at 14h39

A A

Keywords :

drinks sucréessucrenutrition

It is better to get there early to limit the intake of sugars. Intervention programs are most effective in young minds. This is what is suggested by a review of the literature published in Obesity Reviews.

Conducted over 40 trials testing strategies to reduce sugar-sweetened beverages, it delivers a clear conclusion. Adults do not derive the same benefits that the children of these targeted approaches.

Loss of efficiency

The authors of this publication have reviewed the contents of 40 studies. Together, they covered about 16 500 participants belonging to three age classes different : children, adolescents, or adults.

Among the volunteers, those who derive the greatest benefit from programs of the fight against sugar-sweetened beverages are the children. They are able to reduce their daily intake by 30 %. This corresponds, approximately, to 2.5 teaspoons.

The impact of the interventions is less marked among adolescents. Has the outcome of the different projects, they have reduced their consumption by 10 %. “On average, the consumption of sugar is two to three times higher than the thresholds recommended in all age groups, points out Elisa Vargas-Garcia, co-author of the study.

It’s still too low compared with the targets set by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the criteria of the health care agency, it is necessary that the sugars do not exceed 10% of the food intake daily.

Adults disappoint

Weak or not, the results are there. This is not the case for adults. Among the participants, major intervention programmes have no impact. It must be said that the recipes adopted in the individual projects vary significantly as a function of age. Starting with the place of intervention.

“The school is a place for current to target obesity-related behaviours, admits Elisa Vargas-Garcia. However, among the programs targeting the youngest populations, we found that interventions that occur at home are most effective. “

Among younger people, the key to success lies in the implementation of a model of exemplarity. If the children are able to identify a person who is doing particularly well, they recur more often the healthy behavior.