By 2025, PepsiCo is going to reduce the amount of sugar in its drinks

At a meeting of the Medical Academy in Washington, DC, a sharp increase in obesity and type II diabetes over the past three decades was discussed. In this regard, PepsiCo Inc. announced that it was going to reduce the proportion of added sugar in its beverages by 2025.

It is necessary to distinguish between natural and added sugar: the first (for example, fructose) is initially contained in products, while the second is used in the process of food production and processing. Added sugars contain a large number of calories without essential nutrients, they are also called "empty" calories. This sugar causes tooth decay, as it creates in the oral cavity a favorable environment for the spread of bacteria .
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According to PepsiCo, she plans to produce more dietary and low-calorie drinks, as well as revise the amount of added sugar used in high-calorie soft drinks. Now 60% of PepsiCo drinks contain more than 100 kcal because of the added sugar, regardless of the volume in which the drink goes on sale. The company's goal is to reduce the volume of products with high sugar content to 33% in nine years. “We believe that the steps the company is taking will help PepsiCo reach even greater heights in the coming years. Companies like PepsiCo have tremendous opportunities as well as responsibility. Not just to make a profit, but to do it in a way that would have meaning for the whole world, ”the company said in a press release.

Sweet drinks, energy drinks, alcohol - a major source of added sugar. The list of high-calorie "culprits" of obesity and diabetes got the flagship drink Pepsi, which contains 41 grams of sugar (about 10.25 teaspoons) and 150 kcal per 355 ml. In Mountain Dew, sugar is even greater - 46 grams (170 kcal). Against this background, Mirinda with 32 grams and an energy value of 120 kcal seems the most harmless. How to find out how much sugar is safe for health ?

Every five years, the Department of Food and Drug Administration releases a new version of dietary recommendations. They are supposed to reflect the results of recent nutritional research and help people make healthy food choices. They are used by doctors and nutritionists to plan nutrition programs, schools to plan meals, and manufacturers to calculate nutritional information. Version 2015-2020 recommends that you limit the consumption of added sugar to 10% (less - better) from the daily diet. If you consume 2000 kcal daily, then the daily maximum should not exceed 50 grams of added sugar - a little more than one Mountain Dew jar. For a diet of 2500 kcal, the recommended rate is 62.5 grams. If we look at the recommendations of the World Health Organization, we see that they disagree with the opinion of the FDA. WHO recommends limiting the intake of added sugars in the diet to 5%.



Most Americans get a lot more sugar every day. According to research conducted in 2013-2014, about 70% of the US adult population are overweight, 38% are obese. More than 29 million Americans have diabetes, and 86% are at risk. In Russia, these figures are slightly lower: 59% of the population suffers from overweight, and 24% from obesity.

To assist consumers in identifying and reducing the consumption of added sugar, the Food and Drug Administration has proposed to change the labeling of food products at the beginning of 2016. On the new labels, which will be mandatory for manufacturers from July 26, 2018, in particular, added sugar and natural will be separated. The same goal is served by a list of the most commonly found added sugars, published on the US Department of Agriculture website .



Last week, WHO in its report proposed to introduce a tax on sugary drinks, which would help reduce consumption by 20% and reduce the spread of obesity, diabetes and caries. “If governments impose a tax on sugary drinks, they will be able to reduce suffering and save lives. They will also be able to cut health care costs and increase revenues in order to invest in health care, ”said Douglas Betcher, director of the department for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases at WHO.

PepsiCo and other manufacturers, including Coca-Cola, opposed such taxes and label adjustments. The industry has spent millions on attempts to prevent the adoption of the proposed bill at the state level. A recent study also showed that companies spend millions on sponsoring those healthcare organizations and research that can reassure medical companies, that is, those aimed at reducing and taxing soda. Presumably, the charitable organization Save the Children, which sharply refused to support the tax bill after receiving more than $ 5 million from PepsiCo and Coca-Cola in 2010, was an example of such a company. Despite the fact that company leaders have denied this connection, this story has caused a resonance among colleagues and health professionals. In addition, manufacturers have an impact on research. In June, Skittles, Hershey and Butterfingers sponsored sweets research. Last year, The New York Times demonstrated how Coca-Cola funded millions of studies that downplay the connection between sugary drinks and obesity.

This practice has been spread for more than 50 years. Manufacturers distorted research, dictating questions that can be asked about sugar, especially questions about the role of sugar in the occurrence of heart disease. A recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine focuses on discussions that began in the early 1950s, when cardiovascular diseases in the United States began to rise. Scientists began to search for answers and made saturated fats the culprits. This was not an accident: after examining archival documents, the researchers traced how the sugar trade association helped form the hypothesis that eating large amounts of saturated fat was the main cause of heart problems, forcing evidence that sugar might be to blame. .

Today, the view of the scientific community regarding the role of specific macronutrients in nutrition has shifted somewhat. Researchers agreed that eating habits are likely to be more important to health than a specific percentage of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.