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Sugar

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A pile of sugar coated doughnuts. Photo by Kyle Brinker via Unsplash.
News and resources
Further salt and sugar levies could prevent two million cases of disease
Supported by thirty six well-known organisations, Royal Colleges and charities, a new campaign ‘Recipe for Change’ is calling on the Government to introduce a new industry levy to make food healthier. The campaign highlights research by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine demonstrating that salt and sugar levies could prevent over 1 million cases of cardiovascular disease (CVD), 571,00 cases of type 2 diabetes, 11,000 cases of cancer and 249,000 cases of respiratory disease.
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Image: R0bin, Wheat crop field cereal, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence
Journal articles
Low-meat diets can improve European resilience to conflict
Shifting to the low-meat EAT-Lancet diet across Europe could reduce overall demand for many crops and hence provide resilience against disruptions to food supply, notably those caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to this paper. The shift could also provide environmental co-benefits through increased carbon sequestration and reduced blue water use and greenhouse gas emissions.
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Image: Lernestorod, Soft drink soda, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence
Journal articles
Sugar taxes work - but only when mentioned on the label
This article studies the effects of a tax on sales of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and finds that it matters whether or not the tax is mentioned on the label. While a sugar tax alone had little effect on SSB sales on a university campus in San Francisco, adding the phrase “Includes SF Sugary Drink Tax” resulted in lower sales than when the tax was not mentioned. 
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The Broken Plate 2020
Reports
The Broken Plate 2020
This report from the UK charity the Food Foundation sets out ten metrics which could be used to gauge the health of the UK’s food system. Compared to 2019, the report finds improvement in the following metrics: wages in the food industry, products with too much sugar, and products with not enough vegetables. Deterioration has been seen in food prices (note that figures are only available until the first quarter of 2020 and thus do not capture the full impacts of COVID-19) and in places to buy healthy food.
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Frosted donuts hang on wooden pegs at a dessert stand. Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska via UnSplash.
Journal articles
Beyond the calories - is the problem in the processing?
This review paper argues that obesity and mortality in the United States could be reduced by limiting consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and processed foods and meats, because of the tendency of processed foods to encourage people to eat more food (based on trials in people), and the inflammatory effect of emulsifiers such as carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80 (based on mouse and in vitro studies, not studies in people).
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Reports
Use and misuse of UK soil and land to grow sugar beet
This report from UK food waste charity Feedback examines the impacts of UK sugar production. It finds that the area of farmland used to produce sugar beet in the UK - 110,000 hectares - is similar to the area devoted to UK vegetable production. The report argues that sugar beet harvesting is damaging to the soil.
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Image: kin kate, Pizza, Public Domain Pictures, Public domain
Featured articles
Defining hyper‐palatable foods
This paper sets out a definition of so-called hyper-palatable foods (HPF), i.e. foods designed to contain combinations of fat, sugar, carbohydrates, and/or sodium at levels that make it likely that people will continue eating these foods for longer (compared to other foods where they stop eating sooner through the mechanism of sensory‐specific satiety).
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Image: Rawpixel.com, Bubble caffeine carbonated drink, Pxhere, CC0 Public Domain
Featured articles
Impacts of sugar‐sweetened beverage taxes
This systematic review of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) finds that the taxes are associated with a decrease in the amount of sugar-sweetened beverages that are bought and consumed. A 10% tax lead to a 10% decrease in purchase and intake levels, on average, although there was considerable variation between results in different locations.
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News and resources
Tax ultra-processed foods, not simply meat, says jury
A jury-style event hosted by the UK’s Food Ethics Council finds that a meat tax is too simplistic. The event saw four “expert witnesses” give evidence on the impacts of meat and sugar taxes, the environmental impacts of grazing livestock, and the health impacts of consuming processed and ultra-processed meat.
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