Facts on sugar and obesity in NZ

I know some people hate facts getting in the way of their desire to tax anything they don’t like, but I’m quite attached to them.

Associate Professor Winsome Parnell has written at the Sugar Research Advisory Service. Professor Parnell was the Nutrition Director for the most recent NZ Adult Nutrition Survey.

New Zealanders are consuming a moderate level of sucrose that’swithin the WHO recommendation for added sugars:  below 10% of our total energy intake. Sucrose consumption can be used as a proxy for measuring added sugar intake, and sucrose intakes declined between 1997 and 2008/09, from a median of 53g/day to 48g/day. That’s about a teaspoon less per person a day – nearly 2kgs less a year!

So sugar consumption is declining in NZ, even though obesity is rising. So why is a tax on soda drinks the answer?

The latest adult nutrition survey also indicates a reduction in the proportion of sucrose from non-alcoholic beverages and sweets, and an increase in the proportion of sucrose from fruit, compared with 1997.

And less sugar is coming from soda drinks.