Sugary drinks consumption among young teens falling
The Irish Beverage Council, an Ibec group that represents soft drinks companies, has backed newly-published WHO data showing 11-15 year olds consume vastly less sugar-sweetened drinks on a daily basis than their counterparts in 2002.
Print4 July 2017
The recently-published WHO report Adolescent Obesity and Related Behaviours: Trends and Inequalities in the WHO European Region, 2002-2014, has revealed that Irish 11-15 year-olds consuming sugar-sweetened soft drinks on a daily basis fell by a massive 70% between 2002 and 2014.
The amount was 37.3% in 2002, which came to 11.1% in 2014, the report added.
Speaking about the report, Irish Beverage Council director Colm Jordan welcomed the figures, stating that it is evidence of industry innovation having an effect. “We are seeing the impact of industry innovation with an increase of new ‘no sugar’ and ‘low sugar’ products on the market,” Jordan said, “and growth in volume sales for this sub-category. While obesity rates continue to increase, daily consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks among 11-15 year olds is falling dramatically.”
- The same report showed the following (some less encouraging) insights into that age group’s activities and pastimes:
- Computer use of two hours or more on a weekday increased by 203%, to 63.8%
- TV viewing of two hours or more decreased to 50.4%
- Daily fruit and vegetable consumption increased to 44.1% each
- Sweets consumption decreased to 24.8%
- Physical activity of 60 minutes or more decreased a small amount, to 26.9%
“These results prove that a holistic approach is needed to tackle childhood obesity,” Jordan said. “The singling out of the soft drinks industry by way of the proposed sugar-sweetened drink tax is unjustified, since 11-15 year-olds who consume sugar-sweetened soft drinks on a daily basis has fallen sharply from 1 in 3 in 2002, to just 1 in 10 in 2014.
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