We hear all the time that consumption of excess sugar, salt and saturated fat costs global health care systems hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Now, a team from the University of Alberta has calculated the actual cost to Canadians of just one of those no-nos, and it’s shocking…
Maybe they should put this photo of a diabetes patient undergoing dialysis –
or one even more graphic – on the labels of all food products with added sugar…
The team tallied the direct and indirect costs of dealing with 16 chronic diseases to come to what they say is an accurate total for medical treatment and associated costs to society. The bill came to (C)$5 B a year.
The study report calls excess sugar consumption, ‘an area of urgent need for action’ – especially in the post-pandemic era.
Where we are
“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,” says team leader Dr. Paul Veugelers. “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.”
Where we need to be
Canada’s Food Guide, recently updated in coordination with the dietary guides of most other western nations, recommends Canadians consume no more than 10 percent of their total daily calorie intake as ‘free sugars’. That’s ‘added sugar’ – might as well say ‘excess sugar’ – commonly found in sugary beverages, and processed foods.
Alas, as we’ve often noted in this space, the human animal is hard-wired to crave sugar, salt and fat. It’s a holdover from ancient times when those of us who stocked up on them when food was plentiful were the ones to survive the lean times. And we also now know that sugar is as addictive as opiates.
What to do?
Obviously, just asking people to cut back on excess sugar, even telling them all the bad things that can happen to them if they abuse sugar, isn’t working.
Veugelers says, “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.”
The researchers estimated that limiting their ‘free sugar’ consumption to less than 10 per cent of their total energy intake could reduce the incidence of diabetes by 27 per cent. And the 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,” Veugelers observes. “Patients require lots of health-care interactions that drive the costs of chronic diseases.”
My take
Some 40 countries and local jurisdictions around the world have imposed surtaxes on products containing excess sugar. But the effect, though positive, has not been overwhelmingly successful. Instead, Veugelers’ team recommends placing even-higher taxes on all sugar-added products and investing the revenues in subsidies for healthful foods and education programs. They also call for limits on advertising to children, and better product labelling.
Limiting advertising targeting kids and better product labelling have been tried in many jurisdictions, but unless those measures are instituted globally, I don’t hold out much hope that they’ll make any significant positive difference in the situation.
I think it would take something drastic, like mandating that 2/3 of the area of each soft drink / soda bottle label, or cookie bag, be dedicated to pictures of diseased organs caused by excess sugar consumption. They do that already in most places for tobacco products. The problem is, some people still smoke. That’s another addiction that the medical establishment has been trying to beat down for decades, but still hasn’t completely extinguished.
~ Maggie J.