As world heats up, U.S. sugar intake climbs, study finds

Global warming inthe United States is amping up the country’s sweet tooth, anew study found.

- By SETH BORENSTEIN

JOSHUA A. BICKEL Associated Press

A PERSON cools off by eating ice cream this month in Cincinnati.

When the temperature rises, Americans — especially those with less money and education — drink lots more sugary beverages and a bit more frozen desserts. It amounts to more than 100 million pounds of added sugar consumed ina year, compared with 15 years earlier, according to a team of researchers in the U.S. and United Kingdom writing in the Sept. 8 Nature Climate Change journal.

“Climate change is shaping what you eat, and how you eat and that might have a bad effect on your health,” said study coauthor Duo Chan, a climate scientist at the University of Southampton.

“People tend to take in more sweetened beverages as the temperature is getting higher and higher,” Chan said. “Obviously under a warming climate that would cause you to drink more or take in more sugar. And that is going to be a severe problem when it comes to health.”

By tracking weather conditions and consumer purchases, the researchers found that sugar consumption rose as temperatures moved between 54 and 86 degrees. And the warmer it got, the more sugar was consumed, until appetites began to lessen when it grew warmer than 86 degrees.