DOES DRINKING LESS SUGAR MEAN DRINKING MORE ALCOHOL?
Reducing
the intake of sugary drinks is presently quite important to many public
health advocates. Taxes on sweet drinks are one effective way to do
this. And advocates are convinced that the result will be better health –
less obesity and less diabetes. But it’s worth asking: what will take
the place of those sugary drinks? New data from Australia suggests that
alcohol might be part of the answer. ConscienHealth’s Ted Kyle reports.
OBSERVATIONS OF ALCOHOL AND SUGARY DRINKS Tommy Wong and
colleagues looked at self-reported alcohol and sugar sweetened beverage
(SSB) consumption. They also analyzed waist circumference measures. Data
came from the 2012 Australian Health Survey.
Overall, about a third of adults drank no SSBs. But it turns out that
those adults made up for the calories from sugar with calories from
alcohol. A substitution model found no difference in waist circumference
when trading SSBs for alcohol. In other words, they found no evidence
here that people who swapped alcohol for sugar did better on this
indicator for obesity.
HUMANS PUSH BACK Humans
are tricky creatures. Push them to do something you want and they find
ways to push back. History is littered with strong responses to
constraints on beverage choices. The Tea Party and the Whisky Rebellion
are just two examples that come to mind.
Rebellion
isn’t the only response. People adapt in unpredictable ways. For
example, seltzer is an increasingly trendy alternative to sugary sodas.
Smart people don’t drink soda, right? But hey, we need a dash of
pleasure with our seltzer. So, voilà. We have a trend in hard
(alcoholic) seltzers in the US. White Claw is a brand that embodies this
trend and it’s become so popular that there’s a nationwide shortage.
Tax policy plays a role, too, because taxes are lighter on these
seltzers than on distilled spirits. Unintended consequences everywhere
you look.
PITFALLS OF A NARROW FOCUS The systems
that drive obesity are complex and adaptive. Push on one thing and the
systems push back somewhere else. Simply taxing sweet beverages sounds
like a good idea. But it’s worth watching to see how all these human
systems adapt.
And we might do well to think more
broadly, as one of the co-authors of the Wong paper, Prof Jennie
Brand-Miller, told us recently: “Humans have always liked to drink
calories, starting with day one. I think the harms of excessive soft
drink consumption pale in comparison to alcohol. And Australia’s
experience tells us that we shouldn’t expect declining consumption of
soft drinks to make any difference to obesity trends. If we focus more
on calories from alcohol, we might get somewhere.”
Indeed.
A serving of breast milk – nature’s perfect food – has 17 grams of
sugars. Will we wean humans from sweet and pleasurable beverages? Maybe
not. So perhaps a more nuanced and thoughtful approach to promoting
healthful behaviors would be wise.
Read more:
