Diet

Taxing sweet snacks may bring even greater health benefits than taxing sugar-sweetened drinks

The UK Government levy on sugary drinks producers started in April 2018. This will potentially influence the cost of a large range of non-alcoholic beverages. Our new study (published 26th April 2018) looks at how increasing the price of snack foods might compare in impact. We found that a 10% increase in the price of sweet snacks could lead to a similar reduction in consumer demand as the same price increase for sugar-sweetened drinks. However, such a price increase is estimated to have knock-on effects that may further reduce purchases of sugar-sweetened drinks and other snacks. Furthermore, as sweet snacks provide twice as much sugar in the diet as sugar-sweetened drinks, the overall reduction on sugar intake could be even greater than that observed with price increases for sugar-sweetened drinks.

Are sweet snacks more sensitive to price increases than sugar-sweetened beverages: analysis of British food purchase data. (2018). Smith RD, Cornelsen L, Quirmbach D, Jebb SA, Marteau TM. BMJ open.

Access full text

[altmetric doi="10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019788" float="left" popover="left" style="box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);" class="someclass" type="1"]

 

By Saphsa Codling | April 26, 2018 | Diet, Key Studies Diet, Key Studies Economic Environment Interventions, News |
Read more

Nutritional labelling on menus in restaurants and cafes may reduce our calorie intake, according to new Cochrane Review evidence

New evidence published in the Cochrane Library shows that adding calorie labels to menus and next to food in restaurants, coffee shops and cafeterias, could reduce the calories that people consume, although the quality of evidence is low.

Read the Cochrane review

Professor Susan Jebb and Professor Theresa Marteau discuss the findings of this Cochrane Review in The Conversation.

By Saphsa Codling | February 27, 2018 | Diet, News, Publications |
Read more

Does self-control affect interventions to change alcohol, tobacco, and food consumption?

We conducted a systematic review to examine whether individual differences in self-control influence the effectiveness of interventions to change alcohol, tobacco, and food consumption.

Of the 54 studies included in our review, 22 (41%) did not report differences in intervention effectiveness by self-control, 18 (33%) reported interventions to be less effective in those with low self-control, and 14 (26%) reported interventions to be more effective in those with low self-control. This pattern of findings did not differ from chance.

Click on the Read More button for further details on this study.

Does self-control modify the impact of interventions to change alcohol, tobacco, and food consumption? A systematic review. Stautz K, Zupan Z, Field M. Marteau TM

Access full text

By Saphsa Codling | January 3, 2018 | Alcohol, Diet, News, Smoking, Socio-economic Patterning of Behaviour |
Read more