Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Diet, Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, and Disease BurdenDiet is the leading cause of health loss globally according to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010, contributing 10% of all health loss [1].Requiring many assumptions, the GBD team also estimated that 300,000 (95% uncertainty interval: 212,000 to 404,000) deaths per year were attributable to diets high in sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) [1], or about 0.6% of all deaths globally per year.Thus the impact of SSBs on global health is not as big as tobacco, alcohol, or salt, but it is still important.A feature of SSBs is how much they ''stand out'' as an unnecessary health riskthey tend to have little or no nutritional value, leading to labels such as ''empty calories.''Moreover, there are readily available healthy drinks that can be substitutes, such as water, milk, and tea.Lowcalorie and diet soda drinks can hardly be considered ''healthy'' but are also a less hazardous substitute.SSBs are therefore a common target for public health action, from health education to regulation (e.g., bans in schools [2]) to taxes [3].
Source: PLoS Medicine
Authors: Tony Blakely, Nick Wilson, Bill Kaye-Blake
Institution: University of Otago
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,460
Awards: G6250491342, G8882360470
OpenAlex ID: W2044560224