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Sugary drinks more deadly than violent crime in Mexico

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Dalek

Member
Study estimates sugary drinks more deadly than violent crime in Mexico

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Mexico is renowned for being one of the most dangerous countries in the world, so it might sound strange to hear that sugary drinks pose a bigger threat to life here than violent crime.

Sugar-sweetened beverages such as Coca-Cola, Gatorade and homemade drinks known as "agua fresca" kill far more people every year in Mexico than criminal gangs.

A study by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University estimates a staggering 24,000 Mexicans die each year from diabetes, cancer and heart disease that are linked to sugary drinks.

Compare that figure to the roughly 15,649 murders officially recorded in 2014 and it's clear which is the biggest killer in the Latin American country.

Worldwide, the total sugary-drink death toll is estimated at 184,000, with more than 70% of deaths caused by diabetes. The researchers said this was the first detailed global report on the impact of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Out of the 20 most populous countries studied, Mexico's death rate from sugary drinks was the highest by a long way, with an estimated 405 deaths per million adults.

The United States was a distant second with an estimated 125 deaths per million adults, although its total number of deaths was slightly higher than Mexico's at 25,000.

Mexico's death rate from sugary drinks is alarming, but not all that surprising when you consider that the country is also the world's biggest consumer of sodas. The average Mexican drinks a whopping 43 gallons of soda each year — nearly 40% more than the average American, who knocks back 31 gallons.

And one of the most popular drinks in the country is Coca-Cola — it's common to see Mexicans drinking the sugar-laden drink at breakfast — with Mexicans drinking more Coca-Cola products than any other country on the planet.

"This is not complicated," said Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and senior author of the study, in a statement.

"There are no health benefits from sugar-sweetened beverages, and the potential impact of reducing consumption is saving tens of thousands of deaths each year.

"It should be a global priority to substantially reduce or eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages from the diet."
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But in a country where being fat is normal — more than 70% of adults are either overweight or obese — and the Spanish word for fat — "gordo" for men or "gorda" for women — is often used as a term of endearment rather than an insult, it's not going to be easy.
Click to expand...
 
P

PHOENIXZERO

Member
Obesity is a real problem and that's a ridiculous amount to drink but comparing it to violent crime? Seriously?
In before bad water jokes.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Mexico sure loves their sodas.

They are delicious no doubt.

jarritos.jpg
 
M

Mauricio_Magus

Banned
I live in Monterrey, Mexico; The city that consumes the most amount of soda in the world, it's crazy in here.


I only drink water these days, I remember drinking soda when I was a kid and when I changed to water I just started to feel more healthy in general.
 
T

theecakee

Member
I think soda is pretty gross, makes me sick to my stomach and gives a bad after taste.

Crap is really bad for you, I'm almost certain my mom drinking Coke Zero and Tab most everyday is what gave her mouth Cancer.
 
T

thelatestmodel

Junior, please.
I've given up pop and have lost a ton of weight as a result.

I'm quite content with the thought of never having a Coke, Sprite, root beer, etc ever again. Shit is practically poison.
 
K

Kenai

Member
I'm kinda glad I never got addicted to it. I think it's a big part of the reason I am not overweight despite not really working out regularly. I have one every so often, but more than 2x a week feels like too much for me.

Pineapple Jarritos tho <3
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
My mother travels there often and she says people just love their sugar there. There's a culture of sweet food love.
 
K

kswiston

Member
How do they determine that it was sugary drinks causing the heart disease/cancer and not a combination of many things? People drinking 10 cokes a day tend not to have the healthiest eating or exercising habits either.
 
A

alfredofroylan

Member
Mauricio_Magus said:
I live in Monterrey, Mexico; The city that consumes the most amount of soda in the world, it's crazy in here.


I only drink water these days, I remember drinking soda when I was a kid and when I changed to water I just started to feel more healthy in general.
Click to expand...
One of the few places where you can find this:
Coca_Cola___3Lts_50821220dfd02.png

A 3 liters Coca Cola
 
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The Lamp

Member
It's true and it's disgusting. I stayed with a Mexican family in the yucatan and they had coca-cola for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And it's that real cane sugar shit so there's a TON of sugar in there.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Funny, i stopped drinking soda recently and it was totally unrelated to this.

But yeah, it's ingrained in our culture that we accompany our main meal with aguas frescas, usually things like Tang, ice tea, orchata or lemonade, so it's not surprising.

Soda is either for special occasion meals, family dinners, parties or small sodas for when you're relaxing. Also although Coke is super popular, Pepsi is absurdly cheap, as far as being able to get 3 liters of pepsi for what you get a 2 liter coke, and frankly to me the difference is almost non existent, this lead me to drink a lot of soda before swearing it off.

There has been a big push lately to slow down the sweets culture, like snacks and sweets no longer can be aggressively marketed during children shows slots on tv, for example.
 
M

Mauricio_Magus

Banned
The Lamp said:
It's true and it's disgusting. I stayed with a Mexican family in the yucatan and they had coca-cola for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And it's that real cane sugar shit so there's a TON of sugar in there.
Click to expand...

yeah, people drink coca-cola all day, even if nowadays I see a lot of people at least get the diet versions.
 
T

The Lamp

Member
kswiston said:
How do they determine that it was sugary drinks causing the heart disease/cancer and not a combination of many things? People drinking 10 cokes a day tend not to have the healthiest eating or exercising habits either.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter what you eat or how much you exercise if you're drinking 10 cokes a day, that's like HUNDREDS or more of grams of sugar per day when the daily max recommended intake is like 45g (don't remember exactly, you can look up the FDA amount). Plus lots of studies have linked sugar intake to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
 
D

Dai101

Banned
PSqueak said:
There has been a big push lately to slow down the sweets culture, like snacks and sweets no longer can be aggressively marketed during children shows slots on tv, for example.
Click to expand...

Yup. Even resizing the portions to be smaller, although at the same price than before.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Messofanego said:
Coca Cola with breakfast? Like cereal and a soda? Toast and a soda?

Eww!
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Cereal is practically a thing you have for breakfast when you're in a hurry (ie, kids before school and stuff), Mexican breakfasts typically involve more eggs, ham, bacon, sausages, salsa, tortillas, beans and quesadillas.

Still, i think having a coke in breakfast is weird.
 
T

The Lamp

Member
Raistlin said:
but I thought cane sugar sodas were okay?
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No, people just think it is because it's natural. It's still sugar. It's just more expensive to procure and you have to use more of it to get the same sweetness as HFCS.

This is the frustration of the food industry.

Consumers say they want to eat healthier products but their idea of healthy is wrong. They want non-GMO, Non-artificial, organic products, but they don't care how much sugar or sodium the products have, and they think that is healthy.

There's an extremely interesting interview about this with the CEO of the largest food company in America, PepsiCo:
http://fortune.com/2015/06/05/pepsico-ceo-indra-nooyi/
 
C

Crayons

Banned
I have stopped drinking calories almost entirely and I recommend other GAFfers do the same!

You'll feel better, the lbs drop off, you'll be healthier.
 
S

StopMakingSense

Member
Yeah, when we stayed with my wife's father's new family, we were shocked by the sugar consumption. The first night there we had a dinner that consisted of spaghetti, potatoes, a loaf of bread that was shared, and the children had a 2 liter soda they were drinking with it.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
StopMakingSense said:
Yeah, when we stayed with my wife's father's new family, we were shocked by the sugar consumption. The first night there we had a dinner that consisted of spaghetti, potatoes, a loaf of bread that was shared, and the children had a 2 liter soda they were drinking with it.
Click to expand...

I feel for the dental health of those kids. Yikes. Among other things, though.
 
V

verdures

Member
I saw a dude cradling a personal 3-liter Coke on a bus going out from Mexico City. I'll never forget it because that was the day I learned:
  • 3 Liter jugs of Coke exist
  • People in Mexico are drinking them by themselves and carrying them throughout their daily travels
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
PSqueak said:
Cereal is practically a thing you have for breakfast when you're in a hurry (ie, kids before school and stuff), Mexican breakfasts typically involve more eggs, ham, bacon, sausages, salsa, tortillas, beans and quesadillas.

Still, i think having a coke in breakfast is weird.
Click to expand...

Ah, interesting. A coke with any of that still sounds nasty.

Still nothing touches how bad the combo of chocolate and coke can be.
 
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