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Comment by yummyfajitas | Hacker News Reader

They should probably just copy whatever we've been doing in the US. Our sugar consumption has been falling since the late 90's.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUsIUgdVAAA-pu3.jpg

(Obesity has continually increased, however.)

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As it has in the UK [0][3] and most of the developed world [1]. In the UK official data shows per capita calorie consumption has also fallen since the 1970s [0]. Obesity, similarly is on the rise. Something we have seen a rise in over the same time is heating in homes and other places [2]. I'm unable to quickly locate reliable data for calories burned by exercise or work but it seems a reasonable hypothesis that in the UK being cosy and sedentary is making up for the big drop in calorific intake.

Anticipating down votes for sources but do please study the data and where it's taken from.

[0]http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/in-the-media/files...

[1]http://www.comitesucre.org/site/the-inconvenient-truth-about...

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...

[3] http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn142.pdf

HFCS article [0] on Wikipedia has a bit more detailed graph [0] about sugar usage in comparison with other sweeteners (high fructose corn syrup etc.) in the US.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/US_Sweet...

Average consumption at least. It's still the poorer layers of society who suffer the most obesity problems, so it would be interesting to see a graph of their average consumption.

The highly-refined super-sugary foods are typically the cheap stuff, so intuitively a sugar-tax and advertising ban should help target those most vulnerable to obesity.

Maybe your sugar consumption dropped but remember many food companies started to sweeten things with concentrated fruit syrup, HFCS, honey, agave nectar etc. It's still all sugar.

Does that chart include the corn syrup and other substitutes?

Yes. Jozan also just posted a link to a more detailed breakdown:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/US_Sweet...

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