Monthly Archives: January 2014

data saving lives, facts & data points, healthy habits, nutrition, policy

Sugary Drink Tax in India could reduce diabetes

20% tax on sugar sweetened beverages (2014-2023) could

  • avert 11.2M cases of overweight and obesity
  • 400,000 cases of type 2 diabetes
  • the largest impact would be on young rural men
  • impacts even bigger if the 13% linear sales growth rate is exceeded

Study: SSB tax could dramatically reduce diabetes incidences in India

09-Jan-2014

Related topics: Policy, Food safety, Beverages

India could prevent an estimated 400,000 people from contracting diabetes over the next 10 years if the government were to impose a 20% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), a new study has suggested.

According to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine by researchers at the Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, along with academic institutions in the US and the UK, it is estimated that imposing such a tax across India could avert 11.2m cases of overweight and obesity, and 400,000 cases of type 2 diabetes between 2014 and 2023, based on the current rate of increases in SSB sales.

Statistical analysis

The researchers analysed soft drink consumption from over 100,000 households between 2009 and 2010, studying how they responded to price changes in the past, then using that information to predict how a tax on soft drinks would influence consumption trends.

The findings come at a time when Indian health policymakers have been arguing that a combination of education and disincentives should be used to curb the consumption of soft drinks.

If SSB sales were to increase more steeply than the current rate, as predicted by drinks industry marketing models, the researchers estimate that the tax would avert 15.8m cases of overweight and obesity, and 600,000 cases of diabetes.

“Sustained SSB taxation at a high tax rate could mitigate rising obesity and type 2 diabetes in India among both urban and rural subpopulations,” the researchers wrote.

“Future research should replicate the findings observed here in other rapidly developing middle-income countries where SSB consumption is increasing at a rapid rate.”

The researchers combined data on how price changes affect the demand for SSBs with historical data on SSB sales trends, BMIs, and new cases of diabetes to estimate the effect that a 20% SSB tax would have on energy consumption, the prevalence of overweight and obesity, and the number of new cases of diabetes among Indian subpopulations.

Surprising results

The researchers were surprised to observe that the largest relative effect of the SSB tax was likely to be among young men in rural areas.

“Given current consumption and BMI distributions, our results suggest the largest relative effect would be expected among young rural men, refuting our a priori hypothesis that urban populations would be isolated beneficiaries of SSB taxation“, they wrote.

They also calculated that the gains from the tax could be even bigger if sales of sweetened beverages in India grow in the coming years not at a linear 13%, as has been the case since 1998, but more steeply as the drinks industry predicts will be the case.

healthy habits, nutrition, policy, politics, words

Industry response to launch of Action on Sugar

increase fibre content (as a bulking agent) instead of reducing portion size – they have half the calories, but are more expensive and less stable.

New word – rheology: the study of the flow of matter, primarily in the liquid state.

Sugar under siege: Reformulation can win the battle, says Barry Callebaut

By Oliver Nieburg+, 09-Jan-2014

Related topics: Carbohydrates and fibers (sugar, starches), Chocolate and confectionery ingredients, Sweeteners (intense, bulk, polyols), Suppliers, R&D, The obesity problem, Health & Wellness, Confectionery

Replacing sugar with fibers in chocolate could be more effective in reducing global sugar consumption than cutting portion sizes, but will come at a cost, according to Barry Callebaut.

Campaign group Action on Sugar was established today with the aim of pressuring manufacturers to reduce sugar in products by 30% over the next four years. Its chairman told ConfectioneryNews that the organization favored cutting sugar by reducing portion sizes rather than substitution.

Portion control: Foolproof plan to cut calories?

Marijke De Brouwer, innovation manager at Barry Callebaut, said that global salt reduction came through reformulation, so why couldn’t sugar?

“Reducing the portion size is rather easy because it’s only playing with the weight, but with portion size you do not reduce the sugar percentage.”

Fibers for positive health impact

She argued that reformulation would have a greater impact and suggested replacing up to 30% of sugar in chocolate with fibers to perform a bulking function.

 “It has a positive health impact. Fibers have some functional benefits versus sugar.”

A fiber replacement would help increase global fiber consumption and would also limit calories in a product since sugar is 4 kcal per gram and fibers 2 kcal per gram.

The cost

Asked why the practice of replacing sugar with fibers had not yet been widely adopted by the chocolate industry, De Brouwer said: “It’s because of the price impact.”

Barry Callebaut acknowledged that fibers were more expensive but would not say by how much.

Fibers may also impact processability depending on the application, potentially adding an extra cost to ensure products have the same rheology, taste and texture.

“If you want to guarantee it has 30% less sugar, you need to avoid contamination,” added De Brouwer.

She said that brands could feasibly combine reformulation with portion size reduction to cut sugar.

Health implications

Action on Sugar contends that added sugar in food and drinks is an unnecessary source of calories in the diet that is responsible for rising global obesity. It adds that sugar is linked to other damaging health effects such as type II diabetes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that no more than 10% of calories in a person’s diet should come from added sugars for optimal health, but The Sunday Times claims to be in possession of a leaked WHO draft document that says the organization is considering cutting its recommendation to 5% in light of fresh scientific research linking sugar to obesity, heart disease and tooth decay.

What’s the reference?

Action on Sugar hopes manufacturers will reduce sugar by 30% in products over the next four years compared to current levels of sugar in that product.

For example, if Mars opted only for portion control, a 51 g Mars bar would become 42 g.

cool, data saving lives, facts & data points

Gates’ graph of the year

yoahhhh mumma – how many dimensions can you fit on a graph:

Bill Gates’s graph of the year

  • BY WONKBORG

Time has its “Person of the Year.” Amazon has its books of the year. Pretty Much Amazing has its mixtapes of the year. Buzzfeed has its insane-stories-from-Florida of the year. And Wonkblog, of course, has its graphs of the year. For 2013, we asked some of the year’s most interesting, important and influential thinkers to name their favorite graph of the year — and why they chose it. Here’s Bill Gates’s.

Infographic by Thomas Porostocky for WIRED.

Infographic by Thomas Porostocky for WIRED.

“I love this graph because it shows that while the number of people dying from communicable diseases is still far too high, those numbers continue to come down.  In fact, fewer kids are dying, more kids are going to school and more diseases are on their way to being eliminated.  But there remains much to do to cut down the deaths in that yellow block even more dramatically.  We have the solutions.  But we need to keep the up support where they’re being deployed, and  pressure to get them into places where they’re desperately needed.”

– Bill Gates is Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/27/bill-gatess-graph-of-the-year/

healthy habits

Sandra Aamodt at TED: Why diets don’t work

healthy_habits_relative_risk

http://www.ted.com/talks/sandra_aamodt_why_dieting_doesn_t_usually_work.html

I don’t really align with the message that dieting is futile, but I did like the section on mindful eating:

  • Learning to understand your body’s signals
  • Permission to eat as much as you want
  • Figure out what makes your body feel good
  • Regular meals without distractions
  • Focus on how your body feels when you start and stop eating
  • Let your hunger decide when you’re done

If diets worked, we’d all be thin already.

 

healthy habits, nutrition, policy, politics

Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) launches

And so it begins… the long march to effect entirely legitimate change.

With a strong and independent food regulator, the UK is the western democracy best placed to see this through. All strength to their arm – it’s going to be a doozy!

From Marion Nestle: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2014/01/action-on-sugar-to-the-food-industry-reduce-sugar-now/

Action on Sugar to the food industry: reduce sugar now!

A group of public health experts based mainly in Britain have announced a new anti-sugar campaign.

Called Action on Sugar, it is modeled on Great Britain’s campaign to get the food industry to gradually reduce salt in processed foods—voluntarily.  That campaign is considered to have led to a reduction of 25% to 40%.

Action on Sugar’s objective: Reduce sugar in packaged foods by 20% to 30% over the next 3 to 5 years.

Action on Sugar is a group of specialists concerned with sugar and its effects on health. It is successfully working to reach a consensus with the food industry and Government over the harmful effects of a high sugar diet, and bring about a reduction in the amount of sugar in processed foods. Action on Sugar is supported by 18 expert advisors.

As one of the experts put it, “Everywhere, sugary drinks and junk foods are now pressed on unsuspecting parents and children by a cynical industry focused on profit not health”—just like the tobacco industry behaves.

You have to love the British press:

New Picture

 

 

Source: http://www.actiononsugar.org/

  • To achieve a reduction in refined added sugar intake in the UK and ensure it does not contribute to more than 5% of total energy intake.

• To reach a consensus with the food manufacturers and suppliers that there is strong evidence that refined added sugar is a major cause of obesity and has other adverse health effects.

• To persuade the food processors and suppliers to universally and gradually reduce the added sugar content of processed foods.

• To ensure clear and comprehensive nutritional labelling of added sugar content of all processed foods and beverages, using the recommended traffic light system.

• To educate the public in becoming more sugar aware in terms of understanding the impact of added sugar on their health, checking labels when shopping and avoiding products with high levels of added sugar.

• To ensure that children are highlighted as a particularly vulnerable group whose health is more at risk from high added sugar intakes.

• To ensure the body of scientific evidence about the dangers of excessive refined added sugar consumption becomes translated into policy by the Government and relevant professional organisations.

• To conduct a Parliamentary campaign to ensure the Government and Department of Health take action, and that, if the food industry do not comply with the sugar targets, they will enact legislation or impose a added sugar tax.

• To work with other organisations and stakeholders in order to maximise the message about what is a healthy diet, ensuring this includes reducing the current national high added sugar intake.

• To work with experts in individual countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and individual ministries of health and other relevant bodies.

complex adaptive systems, cool, file note, meaning, musings, politics

Notes: Antifragile (from flight)

Commerce and small business (though not large markets and corporations) are activities and places that bring out the best in people, making most forgiving, honest, loving, trusting and open minded… Like antifragile tinkering, mistakes are small and rapidly forgotten [17].
On errors. In the fragile category, the mistakes are rare and large when they occur, hence irreversible; antifragile mistakes are small and benign, even reversible and quickly overcome. They are also rich in information. So a certain system of tinkering and trial and error would have the attributes of antifragility. If you want to become antifragile, put yourself in the situation of “loves mistakes” [21].