One in Three Children and Adolescents Exceeds Recommended Sugar Intake Limits

More than one in three children and adolescents in Korea were found to consume sugar exceeding the daily intake recommendation set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

[Image source=Pixabay]

On the 29th, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) released the results of an analysis on sugar intake from processed foods among Koreans based on the 2021 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

WHO recommends that sugar intake from processed foods should be less than 10% of total daily calories. For example, if a person consumes 2000 kcal per day, the sugar intake guideline is 50g. This is equivalent to about 16 to 17 sugar cubes, each weighing 3g.

According to the MFDS analysis, among children aged 6 to 11, 36.4% of boys and 44.2% of girls exceeded the recommended sugar intake. Among adolescents aged 12 to 18, 30.3% of boys and 51.6% of girls consumed sugar beyond the recommended level. The higher proportion among girls was attributed to increased consumption of snacks such as cookies and bread, as well as more frequent intake of beverages and candies compared to boys of the same age group.

However, the overall sugar intake from processed foods among the entire population was 34.6g, accounting for 7.5% of the total daily calorie intake (1837 kcal), which is below the recommended limit. Compared to 2019, this represents a decrease of about 6%. This decline was mainly due to replacing carbonated drinks with sparkling water and switching from mixed coffee to black coffee, leading to reduced sugar intake from beverages.

Proportion of age groups exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) sugar intake recommendation. [Data provided by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety]

Additionally, the MFDS explained that people who check the nutritional content labels on food packaging consume 6.5g less sugar than those who do not, indicating that reviewing nutritional information when purchasing food is beneficial.

The MFDS has been developing and providing a Nutrition Quotient (NQ) program since last year to promote balanced diets across the life cycle?from preschool children to the elderly?by easily diagnosing individual eating habits and offering customized guidance. Alongside this, experiential education and food safety nutrition education support projects will continue to be implemented to promote healthy eating habits among children and adolescents.

Furthermore, to reduce excessive sugar intake and expand consumer choice, the MFDS plans to revise the 'Sodium and Sugar Reduction Labeling Standards' to allow products with reduced sugar content to display labels such as 'less,' 'reduced,' 'light,' 'lowered,' or 'small amount.' Target food categories will be selected, and guidelines will be distributed accordingly.

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