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Visualising the USA’s addiction to SUAGR
By Ashish Mhatre, Harshad Jadhav, Balaji Sampath
Prologue
Prologue
Sugar in any form is the most craved for food in the modern world. It seems totally impossible to live without it and it is the most delicious form of food as well. You can never be done with a bite of chocolate doughnuts or Christmas cookies or strawberry shortcake or chocolate fudge brownie.
Sugar is added to three out of four of the products found on grocery shelves, making it nearly impossible to avoid. The typical American consumes about 17 teaspoons of added sugars per day, roughly 50 percent more than what is recommended by Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The United States leads the world in consumption of added sugars and ranks third in the world in sales of sugary drinks. All of this sugar has consequences - the U.S. has one of the highest overall obesity rates in the world and the highest rate of childhood obesity. Over 30 million Americans have diabetes, and another 84 million are at risk of developing diabetes.
In the upcoming story, we will try to dive deeeeep into "The American Appetite for Sugar"
It’s no secret that the world loves sugar, with global consumption predicted to exceed 177 million tons this year. In fact, our insatiable need for sugar has even resulted in governments around the world taking action, introducing taxes and revising intake guidelines to try and curb our cravings.
It’s no secret that the world loves sugar, with global consumption predicted to exceed 177 million tons this year. In fact, our insatiable need for sugar has even resulted in governments around the world taking action, introducing taxes and revising intake guidelines to try and curb our cravings.
But which countries have the biggest sweet tooth?
But which countries have the biggest sweet tooth?
The people of the US consume more sugar than any other country in the world. On average, Americans consume 126.4 grams of sugar daily. That represents ¼ of a pound and more than 10 times the lowest recommendation! Many Americans reach for fast, processed foods when hungry because they are readily available. These processed foods are full of hidden sugars like high fructose corn syrup.
A high demand should be met with a high supply !
Lets look into how the supply of sugar per capita has been over the years....
America’s sweet tooth peaked in 1999 when each person consumed an average of 90.2 pounds of added caloric sweeteners a year, or 26.7 teaspoons a day.
In 2014, sweetener use was down to 77.3 pounds per year, or 22.9 teaspoons a day. (Note that those figures don’t include noncaloric sweeteners, such as aspartame, sucralose, and stevia.) While most of the sweetener consumed in 1970 was refined sugar, the market is now almost evenly split between sugar and corn-derived sweeteners, such as high-fructose corn syrup.
HFCS was rapidly introduced to many processed foods and soft drinks in the U.S. from about 1975 to 1985. Soft drink makers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi still use sugar in other nations but switched to HFCS in the U.S. due to higher sugar costs.
How is the supply in Kcal when compared to other food categories ?
How is the supply in Kcal when compared to other food categories ?
The USDA has been collecting food supply data for a long time! Looking back over 100 years, sugars and sweeteners made up 11.9% of all calories in the food supply in 1909.
Over the past century there have been some ebbs and flows in this percentage, the highest being 18.2% in 1997-1999.
However, since the turn of the century, percentage of calories from sugars has dropped. It is important to note that total calorie intake has come up since 1909, but as a percentage of total calories, total sugars consumption is on the decline.
Now, we know that USA ranks #1 in sugar consumption
Let us understand how this sugar takes part in our daily diet.
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