In This Issue

FEATURE: Australia’s national obesity strategy 2022-2032
NEWS: FSANZ reports back to ministers on added sugar labelling
NEWS: Australia’s Children report

Welcome

Welcome to Issue 71 of Sweet Bites. In this issue our feature is about the Australia’s first national obesity strategy. We summarise what it contains.
Our News items are a report from FSANZ about added sugar labelling and a new report on the health of Australia’s children from the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare (AIHW).

From the journals we’ve gathered three papers on sugars, carbohydrates and health: 1. High versus low-added sugar consumption for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease; 2. A systematic Review and its implications on alterations in sweet taste function in adults with diabetes (Australian research); and 3. Changes in Weight-Related Outcomes Among Adolescents Following Consumer Price Increases of Taxed Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (in Mexico).

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

Australia’s national obesity strategy 2022-2032

We summarise what’s in Australia’s first national obesity strategy

News

FSANZ reports back to ministers on added sugar labelling

Added sugar labelling on foods and drinks looks to be going ahead

Learn More

Australia’s Children report

These are tough times. How is the wellbeing of Australian children faring?

Learn More

Research Updates

Here is a selection of recently published papers of interest.

Bergwall S, Johansson A, Sonestedt E, Acosta S. High versus low-added sugar consumption for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022 Jan 5;1(1):CD013320. (free to view)
Finding: No trials were found investigating the effect of added sugar on CVD events or all-cause mortality. Evidence is uncertain whether low intake of added sugar influences CVD risk factors; the effect is small and clinical relevance is uncertain.
*Australian research (Deakin University). Sze-Yen Tan, Caitlyn Hack, Cindy Yu, Isabella Rennick, James Ohanian, Marina Dezan, Nicole Mott, Rebecca Manibo & Robin M Tucker (2021) Alterations in sweet taste function in adults with diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and potential implications. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2021.2015282 (pay to view)
Finding: Individuals with diabetes were less sensitive to sweet taste detection, recognition and intensity. Results on hedonic response (liking or preference for sweet taste) were inconclusive.
Gračner T, Marquez-Padilla F, Hernandez-Cortes D. Changes in Weight-Related Outcomes Among Adolescents Following Consumer Price Increases of Taxed Sugar-Sweetened Beverages. JAMA Pediatr. 2022;176(2):150–158. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.5044 (pay to view)
Finding: Increased price of SSBs were associated with decreased overweight or obesity prevalence in girls but not boys. Improvements were small, mostly in heavier girls and in cities where price increases after the tax were greater than 10%.

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