When thirsty, many of us reach for a sugar-sweetened beverage first. Sugar-sweetened beverages are all drinks that contain added sugar, such as carbonated drinks (fizzy soft drinks and energy drinks), non-carbonated drinks (sports drinks, iced teas and syrups or juice concentrates), dairy fruit mixes and sweetened fruit juices.
Sugars occur naturally in all fruit, vegetables, and dairy foods or they are added to foods during processing, preparation or before consumption (added sugars or free sugars). Sugar often refers to sucrose, which in South Africa is derived mostly from sugar cane. But sugar occurs in many different forms in food, including sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, dextrose, honey, syrup, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, molasses and fruit juice concentrate.
Naturally occurring sugars found in healthy foods are part of a recommend, balanced diet. In small amounts, added sugar is not a health hazard, but too much added sugar is harmful to health.
You may think of your sugar consumption in terms of the teaspoons you add to your tea, but we’re more likely to be getting most of our sugar intake from other sources, especially sugar-sweetened beverages. Sugar-sweetened beverages are a major source of added sugars in the diets of South Africans. Research shows that in 2012 South Africans consumed an average of 285 Coca-Cola products per person, a 56% increase from 2002, placing the country tenth in the world for consumption of these products.
Part of the problem is that sugary drinks and foods are now staples (every day foods and drinks) in many people's diet, whereas once they were an occasional treat for a birthday or celebration. Foods like biscuits, sweets and chocolates contain lots of added sugar, as well as some breakfast cereals, many tinned foods and snack products and convenience foods.
Drinking large amounts of these sugary beverages is unhealthy, and increases our risk of dental caries and becoming overweight and then obese. Although drinking sugary drinks is not the only cause of obesity, it is strongly linked to increased energy (kilojoule) intake and weight gain in both adults and children due to the high added sugar content in these drinks.
The large amount of added sugar in these sugar-sweetened beverages makes them high in dietary energy (kilojoules). Drinking a single sugar-sweetened beverage daily increases the likelihood of being overweight by 27% for adults and 55% for children. Consuming one or two sugar-sweetened beverages daily increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 25%.
These drinks also contain no or very little of the other nutrients we need, such as fibre, vitamins and minerals. Diets rich in added sugar are therefore, in general, poorer in vitamins and minerals.
Because these drinks don’t make us feel full in the same way that eating food does, people don’t reduce their food intake when they drink kilojoules from sugar-sweetened beverages. So it is very easy to consume too many kilojoules from sugar-sweetened beverages. When we consume too many kilojoules, we gain weight. Being overweight or obese has many negative effects on health, such as increased risk of diabetes and heart disease.