Why are we consuming so much sugar despite knowing too much can harm us?

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JAMA Intern Med. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 Jan 1.

Published in final edited form as:

JAMA Intern Med. 2015 Jan; 175(1): 146.

The publisher's final edited version of this article is available at JAMA Intern Med

See the article "Added Sugar Intake and Cardiovascular Diseases Mortality Among US Adults" in JAMA Intern Med, volume 174 onpage516.

See the article "Why are we consuming so much sugar despite knowing too much can harm us?" in JAMA Intern Med, volume 175 onpage145.

We appreciate the suggestion by Avena and colleagues that addiction-like behaviors and related brain changes may perpetuate overeating highly palatable foods that tend to contain high amounts of added sugars. This interesting hypothesis needs to be tested in well-designed interventions and mechanistic studies. Although the high consumption of added sugars in the US population (on average, approximately 22 teaspoons per day) is possibly related to the “addictive” property of the palatable foods and the reward system in the brain, the abundance of added sugars in the current food environment and influential advertising by the food industry may also play an important role.¹

Our data indicate that the majority of US adults consumed more added sugars than is recommended for a healthy diet. Our results, along with the findings of many other studies,^2–5 support current recommendations to reduce the intake of added sugars in US diets.⁶

Footnotes

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

References

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Footnotes

References