Introducing the new all electric
Sweet Bites Newsletter
Issue 72 | April 2022
In This Issue
FEATURE: Are low carb diets effective for sports performance?
NEWS: Scientific Opinion on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of Dietary Sugars
NEWS: New Australian apparent consumption data released
Welcome
Welcome to Issue 72 of Sweet Bites,
In this issue our feature article is about lower-carb diets in sport performance. Is it all hype? We ask Professor Louise Burke from Australian Catholic University.
Our news items are the new European Food Safety Authority opinion on the Upper Limit of sugars consumption, and the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics apparent consumption data including those for sugars.
From the journals we’ve gathered three papers on sugars, carbohydrates and health. How to define and measure carbohydrate quality, a French population study on artificial sweeteners and the risk of cancer and a modelling study on the potential effect of junk food taxes in New Zealand.
We hope you enjoy this issue and invite you to be in touch if you have any feedback or suggestions for topics for future article.
Monthly Feature
Are low carb diets effective for sports performance?
It’s been five years since we spoke with Professor Louise Burke about low-carb diets for sports and we ask her if anything has changed
News
Scientific Opinion on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of Dietary Sugars
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) address the question, how much sugar is OK to eat for health?
New Australian apparent consumption data released
What are Australians eating more and less of, and how are sugars tracking?
Research Updates
Here is a selection of recently published papers of interest.
Here is a selection of recently published papers of interest.
Campos V, Tappy L, Bally L et al. Importance of Carbohydrate Quality: What Does It Mean and How to Measure It? The Journal of Nutrition, 2022 (free to view)
Finding: Summarises several metrics proposed to help identify carbohydrate-rich food sources that reduce chronic disease risk. The best option identified is a ratio of total carbohydrate: dietary fibre of <10:1.
Debras C, Chazelas E, Srour B et al. Artificial sweeteners and cancer risk: results from the NutrNet-Sante population-based cohort study. PLOS Medicine 2022 (free to view)
Finding: In a large French cohort of 102,865 people, artificial sweeteners (especially aspartame and acesulfame-K) were associated with increased cancer risk, hazard ratio 1.13 higher of consumers vs non-consumers. Aspartame was associated with increased breast cancer risk (HR 1.22) and obesity-related cancer risks (HR 1.15).Grout L, Mizdrak A, Nghiem N, et al. Potential effect of real-world junk food and sugar-sweetened beverage taxes on population health, health system costs and greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand: a modelling study. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2022;e000376. (free to view)
Finding: Ten taxes or tax packages were modelled, based on those tried in other countries. The modelling predicted results from those alive in 2011 until the end of life. Results ranged from a sugar sweetened beverage tax increasing Quality Adjusted life years (QALYs) by 12.5 per 1000, to an excise duty on chocolate and confectionary saving NZ$2770 per capita. Greenhouse gas emission savings ranged from 0.2% to 2.8%. Authors caution that while such taxes could lead to health gains, there are a number of other factors that require consideration, including social acceptability, food industry perspectives, the costs of implementation and the complexities of administration.
About Us
The Sugar Nutrition Resource Centre (SNRC) is committed to providing health care professionals with evidence-based information on sugar and nutrition.
Our work continues to be guided by scientific experts from Australia and New Zealand.
As always, we would love to hear any feedback from you.
About the Editor
NICOLE SENIOR
Nutritionist, Sydney
Nicole is an experienced Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist, author, speaker, blogger, cook and food enthusiast with an interest in turning evidence based nutrition guidelines into sensible, achievable and enjoyable everyday eating advice and supporting other food and health professionals to do the same.
Locked Bag 2222, North Ryde 2113, Australia
