Different types of dietary recommendations - including advice on how to identify sugar content, reduce foods high in free sugars, and make simple food swaps - can all help to reduce the amount of sugar people consume, new research has found.
The Bournemouth University (BU) study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, investigated whether receiving one of three different types of dietary recommendation impacted on free sugar intake, as well as overall diet and body composition.
It found that participants who received the different dietary recommendations all reduced their free sugar intake and lost more weight than participants in a control group who received no advice.
Free sugars are any sugars added to food or drink, as well as the sugars naturally present in foods like honey, syrup and fruit juices.
Free sugar intakes are associated with poor health outcomes including increased risk of obesity and several chronic health conditions. The World Health Organisation (WHO) currently recommends that free sugars should be less than 10 per cent of total energy intake, with a reduction to 5 per cent providing additional health benefits. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition for the UK recommends only the 5 per cent limit.
For the first time in a single study, the research team investigated the effects of three different types of dietary advice for reducing free sugar intakes.
Around 240 participants were randomly placed into four groups. The first group received nutrient-based recommendations – including the different names for sugars and how to identify the sugar content in foods.
The second received nutrient and food-based recommendations, which also included examples of foods which are commonly high in free sugars.
A third group received nutrient, food, and food substitution-based recommendations, which, as well as the information received by the other groups, also included information on low calorie sweeteners and low sugar substitutions for high-sugar products – for example, swapping biscuits for oatcakes or rice cakes.
All participants were given the recommendation to reduce their intake of free sugars to less than 5 per cent of their total energy intake and asked to keep an accurate diet diary using online software. A control group were given no dietary recommendations but were asked to keep a diet diary.
After 12 weeks, participants in all three groups that received the dietary recommendations had reduced their free sugar intake by between 2.5 – 3.3 per cent. They had also lost between 0.7 – 1.4kg of body weight over the 12-week period, compared with 0.2kg in the control group.
Few statistically significant differences were found between the three different interventions.
“Our recommendations were based on the current advice provided by the UK government, while testing different aspects of this. The advice was provided at a single time-point, and this was enough for study participants to make changes to their diets for the benefit of their health, and to sustain these for the following 12 weeks,” says senior researcher Professor Katherine Appleton.
No differences were found in the foods participants reported consuming. However, they did make changes to their diet – resulting in an increase in energy consumed from protein and reduction in non-sugar carbohydrate.
This suggests that they undertook only small changes to their diets and that they were reducing sugars and high-carbohydrate food, such as confectionary and desserts, or replacing them with non-sweetened or naturally-sweetened food sources, such as whole fruit, plain yoghurt, and sugar-free beverages.
Professor Appleton added: “Our findings demonstrate what can be achieved in willing volunteers, and the literature on change suggests that small dietary changes can be easier to maintain over the long term than larger changes. The lack of differences between interventions furthermore suggests benefit to offering people multiple solutions and individual choice when providing dietary advice.”
The study was funded by Bournemouth University and the International Sweeteners Association.
The full paper can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114525000339
