Excess sugar consumption costs Canada's health-care system $5 billion
each year, study finds
Researchers urge use of taxation, education and subsidies to encourage
better eating habits
Date:
March 16, 2022
Source:
University of Alberta
Summary:
Researchers peg the economic burden of excessive sugar consumption
in Canada at $5 billion a year, thanks to the direct and indirect
costs related to 16 chronic diseases. The researchers call on
governments to use taxation, subsidies, education and other
measures to encourage healthier eating habits, saying it is 'an
area of urgent need for action' in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Imagine if the real cost to society of the food you buy at the grocery
store was built right into each product's price. Everything with added
sugar would cost a whole lot more, according to University of Alberta researchers in a new study in The Canadian Journal of Public Health.
==========================================================================
They peg the economic burden of excessive sugar consumption in Canada
at $5 billion a year, thanks to the direct and indirect costs related
to 16 chronic diseases. The researchers call on governments to use
taxation, subsidies, education and other measures to encourage healthier
eating habits, saying it is "an area of urgent need for action" in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.
"This pandemic has brought us more unhealthy lifestyles -- on the
nutrition side, on the physical activity side and on screen time for
kids. If we do not act now, we should expect more chronic diseases such
as Type 2 diabetes in the years ahead," said principal investigator Paul Veugelers, professor in the U of A's School of Public Health.
"Health care costs for chronic diseases are ballooning," Veugelers
said. "We not only need to make our health-care system more efficient,
we should also act on the demand side by investing in primary prevention
to ensure we have fewer patients with chronic diseases. Addressing sugar consumption is one strategy to achieve that." Both Canada's Food Guide
and the World Health Organization recommend we consume less than 10 per
cent of our daily energy intake as "free sugar" from foods made with
added sugar and naturally sweet juices, honey and syrup. For additional
health benefits, less than five per cent is recommended.
Using data reported in the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey on
nutrition, the researchers found that two out of three Canadians eat
more sugar than recommended. They then established risk estimates for
16 diet-related chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, kidney disease and low back pain. They calculated
avoidable direct health-care costs such as doctors, hospitals and drugs,
along with indirect costs like productivity losses due to illness and disability.
They concluded that if Canadians had followed the 10 per cent
recommendation in 2019, an estimated $2.5 billion could have been saved,
and $5 billion in costs could have been avoided by following the stricter
five per cent recommendation.
Treatment and management of chronic diseases accounts for 67 per cent
of all health-care costs in Canada, they reported, with an annual price
tag of up to $190 billion.
The researchers estimated that limiting free sugar consumption to less
than 10 per cent of energy intake could reduce the prevalence of diabetes
by 27 per cent, and that benefit could reach 44.8 per cent if Canadians
limited their sugar consumption to less than five per cent.
"Diabetes is just a very expensive condition to manage and to
treat. It can occur at an early age, and you can live with it for a
long, long time. Kidney issues, dialysis, amputation, those are just
a few gruesome examples of where that disease trajectory can go," said Veugelers. "Patients require lots of health-care interactions that drive
the costs of chronic diseases." Forty countries and cities around
the world have already introduced a special tax on sugar-sweetened
beverages such as pop as a disincentive to consumption, building
on lessons from tobacco control measures. Newfoundland and Labrador
recently introduced Canada's first such tax and similar policies have
been suggested elsewhere, but in this study the researchers push for a
broader approach, because they found that only 17 per cent of the costs
related to sugar consumption could be traced back to sugary drinks.
Instead, they advocate for higher taxes on all sugar-added products, and
to put the tax revenues towards subsidies for healthful foods, education programs, limits on advertising to children, and better product labeling.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Alberta. Original
written by Gillian Rutherford. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Siyuan Liu, Lalani L. Munasinghe, Katerina Maximova, Jennifer
P. Taylor,
Arto Ohinmaa, Paul J. Veugelers. The economic burden of excessive
sugar consumption in Canada: should the scope of preventive
action be broadened? Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2022; DOI:
10.17269/s41997- 022-00615-x ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220316091722.htm
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