WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming in the US is increasing the country’s sweet teeth, a new study finds.
As temperatures rise, Americans, especially those with less money and education, drink more sugary drinks and a bit more frozen desserts. According to a team of researchers in the US and UK, this is equivalent to more than 100 million pounds of sugar (358 million kilograms) consumed nationwide in 2015 years ago.
When temperatures reach 54-86 degrees (12-30 degrees Celsius), the average amount of sugar consumed in the US increases by about 0.4 grams per degree F (0.7 grams per degree Celsius). At 54 degrees, the amount of sugar added to the average American is over 2 grams. At 86 degrees, it is over 15 grams.
Beyond that, Monday’s natural climate change study found appetite decreases and sugar drops.
Chang, a study co-author who is a climate scientist at the University of Southampton, said:
“People tend to drink sweeter drinks as the temperatures get higher and higher,” Chan said. “Obviously, under a warm climate that causes you to drink more sugar or consume more sugar. That’s going to be a serious issue when it comes to health.”
Add a little sugar every day
The daily difference between higher temperatures and even a single candy bar for the average person. But it increases over time and has a huge effect, a professor of endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, told Dr. Robert Rustig, a pediatrics and obesity expert who is not part of the research.
Lustig wrote in an email that a can with only one added sugar-like soft drink per day among poor Americans increases the risk of diabetes by 29%. Obesity epidemic.
The average annual temperature in the US is rising 2.2 degrees (1.2 degrees Celsius) Since 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
To chart the impact of sugar consumption, researchers compared it with American Heart Association Recommendations: Limit daily intake to 36 grams for men and 25 grams for women.
The team then compared detailed purchase records with wind, precipitation and humidity records for 40,000 to 60,000 households from 2004 to 2019, without using post-pandemic hit data. They then looked at nutritional information for the items they purchased. That allowed them to eliminate other factors and develop causal relationships and come up with calculations about how much extra sugar per person is consumed, said lead author Pan, an environmental scientist at Cardiff University.
Researchers said she began thinking about research when she realized that Americans tend to grab sweet soda when they were thirsty: “From a nutritional and environmental science perspective, that can be a problem,” she said.
Sugar consumption varies by gender, income and education
Researchers found that men consume sweeter soft drinks and less sugar consumed during the hot season is several times more than the wealthiest.
People who work outside drank more sugary drinks than they work inside. The same went to families who were not educated by the family head. Whites had the highest sugar effect, while Asians showed no significant changes in heated sugar.
Lustig said sweet drinks are sold and priced to attract the poor. It’s interesting thanks to chemicals. Poor people are also likely to be less likely to experience air conditioning, working outside and needing more hydration, he said.
“In households where people make money or are not educated, the higher rate of impact should be relevant to us,” said Dr. Courtney Howard, vice-chairman of the Global Climate and Health Union. “Because these groups tend to have lower baseline health conditions, this is an area in which climate-related changes appear to widen existing health inequalities.”
Emergency room doctor Howard was not part of the study.
The amount of sugar consumed is likely to soar in the future with more warming, Chan said.
But Christie Ebi, a health and climate scientist at the University of Washington, said that, although not part of the study, as temperatures rise along with human-focused climate change, “there are other issues that are more important than the slightest increase in sugar drinks.”
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