Sugar Ethanol Bioenergy Int- A new study says Americans buy more soda and ice cream as temperatures rise. That could have implications in a warming world. Any kid can tell you there is nothing quite as delicious on a sweltering summer day as an ice cream cone. But scientists have now discovered just how much America’s sweet tooth is stoked by higher temperatures — with implications for a warming world.
Researchers who studied 16 years of U.S. dietary habits found that as the mercury rises, so does consumption of sugary drinks and frozen desserts.“People are not aware of this issue,” said Pengfei Liu, a University of Rhode Island environmental economist who co-wrote the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change. “They just take more liquid but do not realize there may be more added sugar content in it.”
Based on their understanding of the relationship between temperature and sugar, the researchers projected that under one of the worst-case scenarios for climate change, Americans could be expected to eat an extra three grams of sugar or so per day by 2095. The effort to stay hydrated and cool down could exacerbate the nation’s risk of disease associated with excessive sugar consumption, the scientists said.
Liu and his colleagues compared data on U.S. shopping habits from Nielsen surveys with the temperatures when food and drinks were purchased between 2004 and 2019. The research team, which included climate scientists and nutritionists in addition to economists, found that the consumption of products with added sugar increased as temperatures climbed to 54 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Once temperatures reached into the 90s, the effect wore off as the heat suppressed appetites.Most of the extra sugar came from sweetened drinks such as soda and juice and frozen desserts such as ice cream, according to the researchers. The study focused on grocery and other retail purchases but excluded restaurant meals.The effect appeared to be most pronounced among Americans with low income and educational levels, as well as among those in milder regions unacclimated to the heat. While the amount of extra sugar consumed is small — less than a gram per degree — the cumulative effect of all that added sugar due to rising temperatures may end up increasing the overall risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Pan He, a study co-author originally from China, said much of the research team has witnessed Americans’ big appetites first hand.“We see how people are so into these sweetened beverages,” said He, who is an environmental social scientist at Cardiff University in Wales. “We are curious about whether that would make a difference” during warmer months.Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California at San Francisco, said the results were not surprising. “You expect people to drink more when the temperature goes up because they’re sweating and they’re losing water,” he said.
But the findings, he added, underscore how addictive cheap sweetened drinks are and how difficult it is for many low-income people to get access to drinking water free of lead and other dangerous chemicals.“Should they turn to water? Of course they should,” said Lustig, who was not involved in the study. But so many water systems are in poor areas are “tainted with various chemicals.”The researcher He said governments should consider educational programs or a sugar tax to discourage excessive consumption — anything that causes people to “take a second thought before they grab something” to drink.But Liu added that he doesn’t think the United States is unique when it comes to its sweet tooth. Up next: The research team is looking into how rising temperatures may affect the purchase of bubble tea in Asia.
