Of the women, housewives consumed the highest quantity of sugar, about 21.3 gm per day. Professionals, on the other hand, consumed 15.4 gm per day.
Women in metro cities consume more added sugar on an average as compared to men, revealed a recent survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). The consumption of added sugar in women was recorded at 20.2 gm per day, while men consumed 18.7 gm per day. The overall intake of added sugar in metro cities was 19.5 gm per day, lower than the amount prescribed by ICMR, that is, 30 gm per day.
Added sugars are sugar carbohydrates that are added to food and beverages during production. It is usually used to refer to sweetened foods.
Of the women, housewives consumed the highest quantity of sugar, about 21.3 gm per day. Professionals, on the other hand, consumed 15.4 gm per day, suggesting greater awareness about the harmful effects of having added sugar. Excess consumption of added sugar can lead to health problems like obesity, diabetes and increased risk of heart diseases. Labourers consumed more sugar than professionals, at 18.3 gm per day.
Dietary data from 16 major states had been collected during 2015-16, by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB), which was then re-coded recipe-wise and city-wise before arriving at conclusions.
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As per the survey, the overall intake of sugar was found to be the highest in Mumbai among all other metropolitan cities. They further inferred that people from low income groups consumed higher quantities of sugar, about 19.4 gm per day, as compared to 18.8 gm per day in high income groups.
With respect to age group, older adults consumed the highest amount of added sugar, at 20.5 gm per day, followed by those in the 36-59 age group and above 60 year of age, at 20.3 gm per day. Adolescents, on the other hand, were recorded to consume 19.9 gm per day while younger adults between 18 and 35 years of age consumed 19.4 gm per day. Besides, school children consumed 17.6 gm per day while pre-school children had 15.6 gm of added sugar per day.
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