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It will shock you how many kilos of sugar an average person consumes per year, according to researchers

Title description, 2024-10-21

October 21, 2024

Believe it or not: According to a recent survey, a person consumes 36 kg of sugar per year. The survey also explored emotional triggers behind sugar cravings.

A recent US survey revealed people’s habits regarding sugar consumption and the surprising way sugar has impacted their hydration levels. The survey, conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Hint Water, surveyed 2,000 Americans. Here"s what the survey published in studyfinds.org found: the average American consumes an astonishing 36,000 grams (36 kg) of sugar per year — equivalent to nearly 80 pounds. Also read | Eating too much sugar may increase your risk of depression: Study

28 percent say their liquid intake is mostly soda

The eye-opening results of the poll of 2,000 Americans found that the average person ingests 99 grams of sugar per day, which is more sugar than what’s in two 12-ounce cans of soda. Over the span of a year, that totals nearly 80 pounds of sugar.

According to the results, the majority of respondents — 85 percent —are actively working to reduce their sugar intake. This makes sense, considering that 34 percent of the respondents admitted that the majority of their liquid intake on a regular day comes from their morning coffee.

Moreover, 28 percent say their liquid intake is mostly soda. However, more than half of respondents, 51 percent, believe that when they’re craving sugar, their bodies are actually craving hydration, and so they drink enough water, specifically to prevent sugar cravings.


The researchers said this insight becomes significant when considering that respondents reported drinking only 48 ounces (1.41 litre) of water on a typical day, far below recommended levels.

“The study revealed that, on a regular day, the average respondent consumes more than twice the amount of sugar recommended by the American Heart Association and significantly less water than is recommended by the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. And while it’s important to showcase how much room we have for improvement, it’s also important to understand why this is the case,” says Amy Calhoun Robb, chief marketing officer at Hint Water, in a statement.



What else do you need to know about sugar cravings?

The survey explored the emotional triggers behind sugar cravings. According to the results, stress (39 percent), boredom (36 percent), fatigue (24 percent), and loneliness (17 percent) are the emotions most likely to prompt sugar cravings. When craving sugar, respondents reported feeling anxious (23 percent), irritable (22 percent), impatient (20 percent), and unproductive (20 percent).

The top scenarios likely to make respondents crave something sweet are watching a movie (31percent), finishing a meal (31 percent), needing a midday burst of energy (30 percent) and having a bad day at work (19 percent).

Moreover, mid-afternoon is the most dangerous time for sugar lovers as the survey found that cravings are most likely to strike at 3.12 pm. So, how long can the average person hold out before caving and turning to sugar? It turns out, only 13 minutes.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.

Dietary fibre inulin promotes allergy-related inflammation in lung, gut: Study

Title description, 2022-11-04

November 4, 2022

According to researchers, a type of dietary fibre called inulin, which is used in health supplements and have certain anti-inflammatory properties, can also promote an allergy-related type of inflammation in the lung and gut, as well as other parts of the body. Researchers from Friedman Centre for Nutrition and Inflammation and Jill Roberts Institute for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and in the Boyce Thompson Institute on Cornell"s Ithaca campus published their findings in the journal Nature.

The study found that dietary inulin fiber alters the metabolism of certain gut bacteria, which in turn triggers what scientists call type 2 inflammation in the gut and lungs. This type of inflammation is thought to have evolved in mammals chiefly to defend against parasitic worm ("helminth") infections, and is also part of normal wound-healing, although its inappropriate activation underlies allergies, asthma and other inflammatory diseases.

"There"s a lot to think about here, but, in general, these findings broaden our understanding of the relationship between diet, immunity, and the normally beneficial microorganisms that constitute our microbiota and colonize our bodies," said study co-senior author Dr David Artis, director of the Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation and the Michael Kors Professor of Immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine.


(Also Read | 5 wonderful drinks to beat bloating post meal)

The study"s scientific participants reflect the Friedman Center"s highly cross-collaborative research mission, drawing on expertise in bacterial genetics, biochemistry and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City and Cornell"s Ithaca campus. Dr Chun-Jun Guo, assistant professor of immunology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr Frank Schroeder, professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute and in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences on Cornell"s Ithaca campus teamed up with the Artis laboratory to gain a detailed understanding of how an important dietary component affects the microbiome and the immune response. The study"s first author is Dr Mohammad Arifuzzaman, a postdoctoral researcher in the Artis laboratory.Dr. Artis is also director of the Jill Roberts Institute for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Small amounts of inulin are present in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including bananas, asparagus, and garlic. It is also frequently concentrated in commonly available high-fiber dietary supplements. Previous studies have found that inulin boosts populations of beneficial gut bacterial species which in turn boost levels of anti-inflammatory immune cells called regulatory T (Treg) cells.

In this new study, the researchers examined inulin"s effects more comprehensively. They gave mice an inulin-based, high-fiber diet for two weeks, and then analysed the many differences between these mice and mice that had been fed a diet lacking inulin. A major difference was that the inulin diet, while increasing Treg cells, also induced markedly higher levels of white blood cells called eosinophils in the gut and lungs. A high level of eosinophils is a classic sign of type 2 inflammation and is typically seen in the setting of seasonal allergies and asthma.

Ultimately the researchers found that the eosinophil response was mediated by immune cells called group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), which were activated by elevated levels of small molecules called bile acids in the blood. The bile acid levels were elevated due to the inulin-induced growth of certain bacterial species--a group called Bacteroidetes, found in both mice and humans--which have a bile acid-metabolizing enzyme.

"We were amazed to find such a strong association between inulin supplementation and increased bile acid levels," Dr Schroeder said. "We then found that deletion of the bile acid receptor abrogates the inulin-induced inflammation, suggesting that microbiota-driven changes in bile acid metabolism underlie the effects of inulin."

"When we colonized germ-free mice (mice without microbiota) with one of these bacterial species, and then knocked out the gene for one bacterial enzyme that promotes bile acid production, the whole pathway leading from inulin to eosinophilia and allergic inflammation was blocked," Dr Guo said.

The finding that inulin promotes type 2 inflammation does not mean that this type of fiber is always "bad," the researchers said. They found that inulin did worsen allergen-induced type 2 airway inflammation in mice. But the experiments also confirmed inulin"s previously reported effect at boosting anti-inflammatory Treg cells, which may in many cases, outweigh some pro-inflammatory impact. Moreover, a type 2 immune response, which in the gut and lungs involves an increased production of tissue-protecting mucus, is not necessarily harmful in healthy people--indeed, the researchers found in their mouse experiments that the inulin-induced type 2 inflammation enhances the defense against helminth infection.

"It could be that this inulin to type-2-inflammation pathway represents an adaptive, beneficial response to endemic helminth parasite infection, though its effects in a more industrialized, helminth-free environment are more complex and harder to predict," said Dr Arifuzzaman.

The researchers now plan to use their multi-disciplinary, multi-platform approach to study systematically the immune effects of the different types of dietary fiber as well as a range of other dietary supplements in different states of health and disease. (ANI)