From June 8 to 11, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition is being held in Baltimore (USA). In this congress, the global consumption of beverages is fully evaluated, to find out which are the most consumed in 185 countries of all the world. The experts of the Tufts University have presented, at Nutrition 2019, an in-depth study on global consumption of something that can increase our total daily calories.
«These preliminary data, derived from the Global Dietary Database project, can help inform nutritional transitions over time, the global health impacts of these beverages, and targeted dietary policy to improve diet and health.“, explains the main author of the study, Laura Lara-Castor. «In particular, the intake of sugary drinks and fruit juice is higher in the Latin American region, where both commercial sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit drinks are widely consumed. The milk intake was higher in the high income regions (including countries such as Sweden, Iceland and Finland), where dairy farming is more widespread and dairy consumption has traditionally been an important part of the diet«.
Mexico leads the consumption of soft drinks and Sweden that of milk
The study is based on data collected from 2015, from more than 1.100 surveys representing some 6.780 billion people around the world. In addition, data on the availability of beverages and other additional information were taken into account. Mexico leads the consumption of refreshments of all the world. The researchers found that an average adult drank more than half a liter a day, followed by Suriname and Jamaica. The lowest consumption was found in China, Indonesia and Burkina Faso.
Moreover, the juices are a great weakness for Colombians (0 liters per day) and in the Dominican Republic (3 liters); being China, Portugal and Japan the countries with the lowest juice consumption.
Regarding the consumption of milk, Sweden has the highest figure (0 litres), followed by Iceland and Finland, where adults drank just over a quarter of a litre. It seems that China, Togo and Sudan are not very motivated by the consumption of milk, and are shown as the countries with the least intake of this drink.
It should be noted that in all countries, the YOUNG lead the consumption of these beverages, the majority being the number of people who had a higher education level and lived in urban areas.