Sugary beverages – juice, soda, decadent lattes, sports drinks, and more – are the leading source of both calories and added sugar in the American diet, according to the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. But new research published in PLoS Medicine has found that
The new study, from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found that parents were 17% less likely to buy sugary drinks for their children when the beverages had the graphical – and graphic – warnings on the products.
Dreamstime
The researchers turned a laboratory setting into a “minimart,” and parents were told to choose one drink and snack for their children, along with one household item (to disguise the purpose of the study).
Some parents were presented with sweetened drinks with images on the products reflecting type 2 diabetes and heart damage. Others were shown sugary drinks with a barcode label and no picture warning.
Forty-five percent of parents chose sugary drinks for their children when the products had no picture warning, but only 28% of parents chose sugary beverages with the cautionary images.
“When people make choices about what food to buy, they are juggling dozens of factors, like taste, cost, and advertising, and are looking at many products at once,” said Lindsey Smith Taillie, PhD, a nutrition researcher and the senior author of the paper.
“Showing that warnings can cut through the noise of everything else that’s happening in a food store is powerful evidence that they would help reduce sugary drink purchases in the real world.”
Children are particularly prone to overindulging on sugar, largely due to companies’ frequent marketing displays of pleasurable-looking and seemingly “thirst-quenching” sweet beverages.
Drink packaging also can be misleading.
Fruits and vegetables displayed on the front of many beverages often lead parents to buy what they believe are “healthy” options, when these drinks could be packed with sugar, according to a study published online Jan. 22 in the journal Appetite.
Parents are often “doing the best with what information they have,” so more education about nutrition, through picture warning labels, for example, would make a difference, said Caroline Fausel, a paleo food blogger, podcaster, and author of “Prep, Cook, Freeze: A Paleo Meal Planning Cookbook.”
Healthier choices on the rise
The American Beverage Association, an industry trade group, shared the current steps that major companies are taking to help lower Americans’ sugar intake.
Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Keurig Dr Pepper joined forces in 2014 to create the Balance Calories Initiative, which aims to reduce beverage calories in the national diet.
Coca-Cola now offers 250 beverages with zero to low calories, and Keurig Dr Pepper has 158 products with 40 calories or less. Pepsi sells 7.5-ounce mini-cans, along with various other sizes, to encourage portion control.
“Beverage companies are fully transparent about the calories and sugar in our products, and we are offering more choices with less sugar than ever before,” William Dermody, vice president of media and public affairs for the American Beverage Association, said in a statement. “We agree that too much sugar is not good for anyone, and clear information about beverages is most helpful to consumers.”
Other big companies also are taking strides to lower sugar content in their products.
Kraft Heinz, which owns the popular line of Capri Sun drinks, has publicly shared its efforts to ramp up the nutritional value of its products.
The company has a goal to slash 60 million pounds of total sugar in Kraft Heinz products globally by 2025.
“As more people become aware of the harm that excessive sugar can cause in the body, my hope is that they continue to choose healthier alternatives,” Ms. Fausel said.