The proposed sugar label would save $ 31 billion in health care costs

Soda, it's good – but billions of dollars of savings, it's even better.

When the Food and Drug Administration announced in 2016 that manufacturers would soon be required to disclose the amount of added sugar on their nutrition labels, researchers at Tufts University undertook to determine the potential impact of this provision on overall health American consumers.

The "validated" mathematical model has shown a significant decrease in cases of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes over the next 20 years, according to the results published Monday in the journal Circulation of the American Heart Association.

Americans consume more than 300 calories of sugar a day, the main source being sugary drinks, followed by desserts such as cookies, ice cream and sweets.

"The goal of our study was to estimate the impact of the FDA's added sugars label on reducing sugar consumption and preventing diabetes and cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Renata Micha, nutritionist. and professor of politics at Tufts. "Our results indicate that rapid label implementation of added sugars could reduce the consumption of foods and beverages containing added sugars, which could then result in improved health and reduced intakes." expenditure on health care. "

The researchers said that between 2018 and 2037, the label would prevent more than 354,000 new cases of cardiovascular disease and 600,000 fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, which would result in health care costs of more than $ 31 billion.

When the FDA ordered that trans fatty acids be labeled more clearly, many food manufacturers have begun reformulating their products to minimize trans fats, if any, to meet new consumer demands. which suggests that mandatory labeling of sugar content would encourage the food industry to: reduce sugar in their products. "

If that was true, they expected an even greater impact of the "added sugar" label, with 700,000 cases of heart disease and 1.2 million fewer diagnoses of diabetes, thus allowing Save over $ 57 billion in health care.

"Our findings may be conservative and underestimate the overall health and economic impacts. The model only evaluated the health benefits and cost savings from diabetes and cardiovascular disease, "says Michael, adding that the label mandate could have a positive impact on many other health issues. .