"High-Risk Group for Sugar Intake Among Teens and Young Adults"… Seoul City Launches '#EatWithWater' Instagram Challenge

Reducing Sugar Intake by Choosing 'Water with Meals' Instead of Carbonated and Sugary Drinks: Small Daily Practices for Widespread Impact

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 5th that it will conduct the ‘#Meals_with_Water’ Instagram challenge to make it easy to reduce sugar intake by having meals ‘with water’ instead of carbonated or sugary drinks for better health.

The Seoul ‘#Meals_with_Water’ challenge will run from July 5 to 23, and any interested citizen can participate. To join, upload a photo or video on Instagram showing a meal ‘with water’ instead of carbonated or sugary drinks, and include hashtags such as ‘#Meals_with_Water #SeoulMetropolitanGovernment #Join_Gamdang_Project’.

The first 1,000 participants will receive a cultural gift certificate (worth 5,000 KRW) as a prize. This challenge is part of the ‘Seoul Citizens Gamdang (Reducing Sugar) Project,’ designed to contribute to establishing healthy eating habits through practical sugar reduction in daily life.

According to last year’s study on ‘Policy Development for Reducing Sugar Intake among Seoul Citizens,’ adolescents and young adults (ages 10-20) were identified as a high-risk group for sugar intake. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that added sugar intake from processed foods should be within 10% of daily caloric intake (50g based on 2,000 kcal). The proportion of Seoul citizens exceeding the added sugar intake standard is 22.8%, with adolescents and young adults (ages 10-20) showing a higher rate of 30-40%.

In particular, adolescents and young adults (ages 10-20) had a high proportion of sugar intake from carbonated drinks among processed foods. Among them, 30% consume carbonated drinks at least once a day. The main reason for drinking beverages was found to be related to meals. This is attributed to rapidly increasing meal types such as fast food, delivery food, convenience meals, and convenience store meals.

Beverages containing sugar are a major source of added sugar intake and have low nutritional density with almost no other nutrients besides sugar, making them energy-dense foods known to increase the risk of metabolic diseases including obesity and diabetes.

Park Yumi, Director of the Citizen Health Bureau, said, “If you have habitually chosen sugary drinks with every meal, now try a small daily practice of ‘having meals with water’ to reduce the risks associated with excessive sugar intake.” She added, “We expect improvements in healthy eating habits through practical sugar reduction that anyone can do in daily life.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.