Oral Presentation Joint Annual Scientific Meeting of the Nutrition Society of NZ and the Nutrition Society of Australia

Intake and food sources of added sugar in the Australian population (286)

Linggang Lei 1 , Jimmy Louie 1 , Anna Rangan 1
  1. School of Molecular Bioscience, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney

Background/Aims: There are no published data regarding the current added sugars intake and major food sources contributing to added sugars of the Australian population. The latest study on this topic was based on the 1995 Australian National Nutrition Survey (NNS) conducted by Cobiac et al. in 2003. We therefore aim to examine the added sugars intake of participants of the 2011-13 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NNPAS), and to identify the main food sources contributing to their added sugars intake.

Methods: Participants, aged 2–71+ years, who provided one 24 hour recall in the NNPAS were included. A final dataset of 8332 participants was analysed. Added sugar content of each food item was assigned using a previously published method. Food groups contributing to the added sugars intake were described by age group and sex.

Results: The weighted mean daily added sugars intake of the participants were 60.3 (SD 52.6) g/d. Sugar sweetened beverages accounted for the greatest proportion of the added sugars intake of the Australian population, followed by sugar and spreads and cake and biscuit.

Conclusions: The Australian population were having more added sugars than recommendation. Efforts on reducing added sugars intake should be focused on these energy dense nutrient poor foods.

Funding source: N/A