Americans Are Consuming More Sugar: The Strange Consequence of Global Warming

When researchers explore the links between climate change and food, they most often try to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture and livestock sector, notes Scientific American . But Pan He, a researcher at Cardiff University in Wales, and her colleagues had the idea of ​​“ looking at the inverse relationship, that is, what was the impact of rising temperatures on food consumption ? ”

“ The researchers compiled data on US household food purchases between 2004 and 2019 ,” CNN reports , “which they then compared to regional weather data, including temperature and humidity.”

They discovered that with global warming, Americans were consuming more and more sugar, and that the least socioeconomically advantaged were the most affected. Their results have just been published in Nature Climate Change .

Specifically, when the outdoor air temperature is between 20 and 30°C, there is an increase of 0.7 grams of sugar consumed per person per day for every one-degree rise on the thermometer. From 30°C onwards, this increase slows, probably because the heat eventually suppresses appetite. By 2095, the increase in sugar intake could reach 3 grams, the researchers predict.

“ Most of the increase in sugar intake is due to the rise in purchases of beverages containing added sugar. Ice cream and other sorbets contribute less , ” explains Scientific American . The magazine points out that men are recommended to consume a maximum of 36 grams of sugar (26 grams for women) for a daily intake of 2,400 calories, but “ a single can of soda provides 40 calories.”

This is cause for concern because, as researcher Charlotte Kukowski of the University of Cambridge explained to CNN , the most vulnerable groups are both those who have the most difficulty adapting to climate change and those who are hardest hit by diet-related diseases.