FAMILIES in Scotland are in the grip of a powerful sugar addiction driven by supermarket deals on sweets and fizzy drinks, a study warns.
Scientists found that households with children had “significantly” increased their purchases of sugary products in recent years, fuelled by in-store price cuts.
One theory is that the big supermarkets used price cuts to shift more goods during the recession, when household budgets were tight.
It is well known that many of us eat too much sugar — which is helping to drive up obesity — but the findings lay bare the full extent of the nation’s sweet tooth.
The study, carried out by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), analysed data on the shopping habits of more than 3,000 households between 2006 and 2011.
Advertisement
It included the price paid for products, whether they were part of a promotion, and how much was bought. It emerged that, over the five years, an increasing proportion of sales of sugary snacks came from cut-price offers.
Bargain confectionery sales rocketed by almost 10 percentage points, from 33.5% in 2006 to 43% in 2011, while deals on frozen products drove sales up from 44.5% to 49%, and for fizzy drinks from 47% to 54%. Researchers concluded that increased consumption of take-home confectionery and soft drinks in 2011 was fuelled entirely by supermarkets’ temporary price cuts.
Sales of sugary products between 2008 and 2011 did not rise when there were no promotions.
“This finding highlights the importance of promotions in stimulation [of] the purchases of sugary products,” said the researchers.
It was also noted that supermarkets in Scotland had increased their use of promotions, “reinforcing the idea that retailers have been using promotions to keep the expenditure growing during the recession times”.
Advertisement
The study, by Dr Cesar Revoredo-Giha from the SRUC and presented last month at the European Association of Agricultural Economists congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia, concluded: “Overall, the results indicate that young households and families with children have increased substantively their purchases of sugary products, helped by different types of retail promotions.”
Revoredo-Giha goes further by suggesting the results “have important implications for public health”.
He argues that evidence that retailers’ promotions encourage hoseholds to buy more sugary products could be used to curb the trend. “Policies tending to increase the retailers’ awareness or forbidding the use of such marketing tools by retailers for specific products due to implication for health are certainly justified.”
Advertisement
Developed countries are facing an obesity epidemic, which is increasingly affecting children. Scotland has one of the worst records of the 34 industrialised countries belonging to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, with 68% of males and 62% of females overweight or obese. Studies suggest that more than 15% of boys and 13% of girls under the age of 16 are obese and 30% of children are overweight.
In Scotland, ministers have said they will “carefully consider” recommendations put forward to the UK government that an adult’s entire daily sugar ration should be limited to the equivalent of one fizzy drink.