Reducing sugar in canned foods could prevent millions of deaths: Study
According to one study, cutting sugar by 20 percent from packaged foods and 40 percent from beverages could prevent the onset of heart diseases and diabetes, along with deaths in millions of people worldwide. The study, led by a team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Tufts University and others, showed that reducing the amount of sugar in packaged foods and beverages was associated with 2.48 million heart disease events (such as stroke, heart failure, and stroke). The risk of stroke, heart disease) can be reduced. arrest), 490,000 cardiovascular deaths, and 750,000 diabetes cases in the US.
The report was published in the journal Circulation.
“Reducing the sugar content of commercially prepared foods and beverages will have a bigger impact on the health of Americans than other initiatives to cut sugar, such as imposing a sugar tax, labeling the added sugar content, or reducing the sugar content of schools. Banning sugary drinks in the U.S.,” said the lead. author, and MGH, attending physician in Siyi Shangguan.
Consumption of sugary foods and beverages has been linked to obesity and diseases such as type-2 diabetes and heart disease, which is the leading cause of mortality in the US. More than two in five American adults are obese, one in two have diabetes or pre-diabetes, and nearly one in two have heart disease, with low-income groups disproportionately burdened.
“Sugar is one of the most obvious additives in the food supply to reduce in reasonable amounts,” said co-senior author and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Dariush Mozaffarian.
“Our findings suggest that it is time to implement a national program with voluntary sugar reduction targets, which could generate major improvements in health, health inequalities and health care spending in less than a decade.”
The team built a model to simulate and quantify the health, economic and equity impacts of a pragmatic sugar-reduction policy proposed by the US National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative (NSSRI).
According to the model, ten years after the NSSRI policy goes into effect, the US can expect to save $4.28 billion in total health care costs and $118.04 billion over the lifetime of the current adult population (aged 35 to 79).
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