A comprehensive policy for reducing sugar beverages for healthy life extension

The excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is a public health concern worldwide. Several clinical trials examining the effects of consuming sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup demonstrated the link between this consumption and increased risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases. In this issue of Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, Li et al. examined the sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among undergraduate students and evaluated the relationship between this consumption and the “late” chronotype, sleep duration, and weight increase. They concluded that the sugar-sweetened beverage intake might mediate the associations among sleep duration, late chronotype, and weight gain and that the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages in the evening may be a risk factor for the development of overweight/obesity. A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials provided evidence that the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages promotes weight gain in both children and adults. The World Health Organization guideline highly recommends reducing the intake of sugars to less than 10% of one’s total energy intake. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet and the Mediterranean diet were shown to help individuals refrain from sweets and sugar-containing beverages. A global evaluation revealed how much disability during accumulated lifetime hours is due to sugar-sweetened beverages. Interventions are necessary, but many individuals find it quite difficult to reduce or eliminate their high intake of sugar-sweetened beverages. The taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages was demonstrated to have a significant positive influence on individuals’ planned purchases and the probability of the purchase of healthy beverages. Western countries are working on the social regulation of sugar-sweetened beverages, but Japan has not implemented any similar regulations. The social regulation of sugar-sweetened beverages is necessary to stop the increase of diabetes morbidity and the increase in dementia that often accompanies this morbidity.