Sugar Intake in Children in Australia: Effects on Obesity

This research aims to investigate the high rate of obesity among children and adolescents in Australia, caused by high sugar intake. The study will explore motivating factors towards children’s sugar consumption habits and the effect of sugar consumption on obesity. Quantitative research design will be employed, and data will be collected from secondary sources. Both descriptive and inferential statistics tools will be employed in data analysis.

SUGAR INTAKE IN CHILDREN IN AUSTRALIA

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Problem statement..................................................................................................................................2
Research objective..................................................................................................................................3
Research questions..................................................................................................................................3
Significance of the study..........................................................................................................................3
Literature review.........................................................................................................................................4
Obesity....................................................................................................................................................4
Motivating factors towards eating habits....................................................................................................5
Research methodology................................................................................................................................7
Research design.......................................................................................................................................7
Data collection.........................................................................................................................................7
Data analysis............................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography List..........................................................................................................................................8

1 | P a g e
Introduction
Obesity has emerged as one of the major problems that the different individuals including
the children are facing currently and it is seen that if poses a substantial amount of danger for the
physical wellbeing of these individuals. Around the world, the number of children with obesity
has radically increased in the course of the most recent few years. In 2010, more than 40 million
children, under the age of five, were estimated to be overweight (Beaton, Wright, Devenish, Do,
& Scott, 2018). These numbers point out that obesity might become the next worldwide
epidemic, having gigantic ramifications for society (Devenish, Mukhtar, Begley, & Scott, 2017).
The reason is self-evident; individuals eat excessively or devour such a large number of
undesirable foods, along these lines taking in a larger number of calories than they ought to once
a day (Duncanson, Lee, Burrows, & Collins, 2017).
The problem of obesity poses a far greater threat to the physical wellbeing of the children
in comparison to the adults. An expected 28% of kids and youths in Australia are overweight or
obese. In specific gatherings such Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people groups, the
number of kids with obesity has all the earmarks of being significantly higher (Erickson,
Sadeghirad, Lytvyn, Adams-Webber, Johnston, & Slavin, 2016).
One of the major reasons for the high level of obesity prevalent among the contemporary
children or teenagers is the high sugar intake in the form of various food and related products
like chocolates, candy bars, fizzy drinks and others. Sugars are polyhydroxy aldehydes/ketones
belonging to the glycans/starch group. By giving energy, ATP and some other valuable
physiological exercises of the body, the sugars have earned the purpose of macronutrients which
are found in a few nourishments and refreshments (Erickson, Sadeghirad, Lytvyn, Slavin, &
Johnston, 2017). The primary function of sugars is to offer energy to the body for its working

2 | P a g e
and physical exercises, using glucose as its source. Other than this, a treatment utilized for
incessant back torment named as Prolotherapy revels sugar (glucose or dextrose) in infusions for
easing pain. According to (Fayet-Moore, McConnell, Tuck, & Petocz, 2017) numerous
medications comprise of glycans (kind of sugar) as a basic fixing. Medications, for example,
heparin (utilized for treatment and aversion of blood clumps in veins, conduits or lungs),
erythropoietin, some enemy of influenza medications and medications treating against
malignancy contain glycans. Despite the fact that there are numerous uses of sugar however yet
the battle of sugar being a companion or an adversary, irresolvable, keeps on being.
Obesity presents various challenges for kids and young people not only in terms of their
physical health but at the same time their social growth as well. For example, it is seen that the
obese children often had to face stigma and discrimination from the other physically fit children
and even adults. In addition to this, the problem of obesity even limits the normal physical
movement of the children and this can take a toll on their normal daily life activities. This is
currently an issue because as mentioned more than 28% of the children of the world are the
victims of obesity and this can lead to various other problems in the later part of their lives like
heart diseases, immobility and others. These in short are the main reasons why the researcher has
opted for this topic.
Problem statement
There is a high rate of obesity among children and adolescents in Australia being at about
28%. This research shall therefore try to study sugar consumption habits among this segment of
the population and its effects on obesity.

3 | P a g e
Research objective
The goal of this research is to gain understanding of the obesity problem among children
and adolescents in India, by investigating their sugar consumption habits.
Research questions
Since this research will try to gain understanding of children consumption habits, the
following research questions are formulated;
i. Do overweight and obese children consume more sugar than children with a healthy
BMI?
ii. Does sugar intake differ between children who live in urban vs. rural areas within a
certain age bracket?
iii. Is there a difference in sugar intake between weekday and weekends with a certain age
bracket? What are the major food sources of dietary sugar?
iv. What is the effect of sugar consumption on obesity?
v. What are the motivating factors towards children’s sugar consumption habits?
Significance of the study
The problem of obesity has formed the lacuna a plethora of research works conducted by
researchers as well as scholars and their work at the same time had offered insightful information
regarding the very concept of obesity itself. However, at the same time, it needs to be said that
very few research works have been conducted in the past to understand the correlation between
the sugar intake of children and the high prevalence of obesity among them. The outcomes of the
research will be interesting for nutritionists and health practitioners as it will help them
understand the factors that motivate children in sugar and sugary foods consumption. Moreover,
it might be valuable to parents, health experts and government in countering the effects of sugar
and sugary foods consumption.

4 | P a g e
Literature review
Obesity
Obesity refers to the physical condition in which an individual is becomes grossly fat or
overweight because of high content of fat in their body. The major reason for the problem of
obesity is generally attributed to the high sugar intake tendencies of the people. This poses
various kinds of health problems to the people who are suffering from the problem of obesity
like heart risks, diabetics and others. For instance, the rate of type 2 diabetes is proceeding to
increase in kids and young people. Different challenges that the overweight youngsters
commonly face are rest apnoea, heat bigotry, shortness of breath on effort, tiredness and flat feet.
Being overweight can likewise make a youngster more helpless against diminished confidence
and eating horribly to endeavor to control weight (Hesketh, et al., 2017).
Obesity among kids is primarily caused when there is energy unevenness between calorie
utilization and calorie expenditure, which is very because of high sugar consumption (Gilbertson,
Reed, Clark, Francis, & Cameron, 2018). The net result of this is the fact that high sugar which
these individuals consume that is not being utilized by their body inadvertently gets converted
into fat. This in turn increases the body weight of these individuals in a substantial manner.
The consumption of nourishments that contain a considerable measure of sugars or fat
has increased so much, while the consumption of fruits and vegetables is very low (Lobstein, et
al., 2015). Children often end up consuming various kinds of fast food and other kinds of sugar
rich food items which are actually harmful for their body. More importantly, children also
consume fizzy drinks and other kinds of beverages which are rich in energy content and thereby
adversely affect their health.

5 | P a g e
Motivating factors towards eating habits
In an investigation by (Mazarello Paes, et al., 2015) youths identified taste as a barrier
towards smart dieting. As indicated by the respondents, the taste of healthy food was bad or
boring. Majority of children find the tastes of fast foods and fizzy drinks which are actually
harmful for them to be very gratifying. Thus, it can be said that the taste of the food products that
the children consume is a major motivational factor that propels them to consume various kinds
of unhealthy food products. (Tonkin, et al., 2018) led a comparative research with kids and
furthermore discovered that food tastes and inclinations were reliably distinguished as an
essential impact of youngsters' food consumption decisions.
Numerous researchers claim that preferences and inclinations have been one-sided. This
happens in light of the fact that people certainly connect unhealthiness with sweetness. Likewise,
children will in general group foods as either foods they like or foods they detest – where sugary
foods are affable foods are liked by children. As indicated by (Vercammen, Frelier, Lowery,
McGlone, Ebbeling, & Bleich, 2018) food which were healthy were related with grown-ups and
home and along these lines less favored.
The appearance of unhealthy foods has been contended to be more pleasing in contrast to
the appearance of healthy foods. scientists directed focus groups and discovered that food
decisions are affected by physical and mental elements, for example, taste, surface, appearance
and smell. Likewise, moral appall is observed to be an imperative factor impacting the utilization
conduct of people (Watson, Coates, Banks, & Kohler, 2018), for instance a few people express
sicken at the prospect of eating meat with bones as this helps them to remember the root of the
monster. Subsequently, these individuals regularly eat prepared nourishments rather than new.
As indicated by the respondents, unhealthy consumptions were positive due to these physical

6 | P a g e
properties. Healthy foods then again did not have these ideal properties and were along these
lines disliked.
Other reasons for choosing unhealthy food over healthy food were the influence of peers
and a lack of parental encouragement. Youngsters acknowledged that low family bolster added
to an expansion in undesirable utilization decisions (Whitrow, et al., 2016). Despite the fact that
more established youngsters would in general have more power over their utilization conduct,
even youthful kids as of now have a huge say in choosing what nourishments they eat. Numerous
guardians are contended not to practice limitations on food consumption. This is unsafe given
that independent of age and sex, youngsters will in general lean toward undesirable foods over
healthy foods in the event that they can pick. (Winpenny, Penney, Corder, White, & van Sluijs,
2017) likewise investigated the decision that youngsters have at school.
The inclination of youngsters to lean toward publicized over non-promoted foods has not
changed throughout the years, while the influence that the kids had on their folks' shopping for
food choices has greatly increased. A major concern given that foods are the most every now and
again publicized items amid hours that kids regularly stare at the TV and most promoted items
contain a lot of sugar – for example treats, sweets and soft drink. As indicated by Louie and
Tapsell (2015), just a little rate – 2 to 4 percent – of the promoting efforts is about healthy foods,
for example, drain or bread.
(Erickson, Sadeghirad, Lytvyn, Adams-Webber, Johnston, & Slavin, 2016) led an analysis with
the end goal to assess the effect of a school-based sound conduct mediation program. This
program went for diminishing TV seeing, decreasing the utilization of high-sugar nourishments
and expanding the utilization of foods grown from the ground. They discovered that the program,

7 | P a g e
known as Planet Health, effectively diminished weight by expanding products of the soil
admission and physical movement and decreasing TV review and high-sugarfood consumption.
Research methodology
Research design
Quantitative research design will be employed in this study. Quantitative design will be
used for investigating numerical survey data.
Data collection
Quantitative data for purposes of this research will be collected from secondary sources.
The source of the secondary data will be the 2007 Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity
Survey (CNAPS). The 2007 CNPAS was a cross-sectional survey designed to collect
demographic, dietary, anthropometric and physical activity data from a nationally representative
sample of children and adolescents aged 2-16 years. The data includes a 24-hour diet recall
which will be used for this project. Children were randomly selected from rural and urban
regions, across states and territories and invited to take part in the study. Children were
categorized into four age groups, 2–3 years, 4–8 years, 9–13 years and 14–16 years to align with
the age bands in Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. 1000 participants
provided responses for each of the sampled age groups.
Data analysis
Quantitative tools will be used for analysis of the data. Both descriptive and inferential
statistics tools will be employed in analysis of data for purposes of this research. Cross
tabulations will be employed for making comparison of variables under study. The Statistical
Software for Social Statistics (SPSS) will be used for analyzing data.

8 | P a g e
Bibliography List
Beaton, E., Wright, J., Devenish, G., Do, L., & Scott, J. (2018). Relative Validity of a 24-h Recall in
Assessing Intake of Key Nutrients in a Cohort of Australian Toddlers. Nutrients , 80.
Devenish, G., Mukhtar, A., Begley, A. D., & Scott, J. (2017). Development and Relative Validity of a Food
Frequency Questionnaire to Assess Intakes of Total and Free Sugars in Australian Toddlers. International
journal of environmental research and public health , 1361.
Duncanson, K., Lee, Y. Q., Burrows, T., & Collins, C. (2017). Utility of a brief index to measure diet quality
of Australian preschoolers in the Feeding Healthy Food to Kids Randomised Controlled Trial. Nutrition &
Dietetics , 158-166.
Erickson, J., Sadeghirad, B., Lytvyn, L., Adams-Webber, T., Johnston, B., & Slavin, J. (2016). Dietary Sugar
Intake: Systematic Review of Public Health Guidelines and their Recommendations. Journal of the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics , A16.
Erickson, J., Sadeghirad, B., Lytvyn, L., Slavin, J., & Johnston, B. C. (2017). The scientific basis of guideline
recommendations on sugar intake: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine , 257-267.
Fayet-Moore, F., McConnell, A., Tuck, K., & Petocz, P. (2017). Breakfast and Breakfast Cereal Choice and
Its Impact on Nutrient and Sugar Intakes and Anthropometric Measures among a Nationally
Representative Sample of Australian Children and Adolescents. Nutrients , 1045.
Gilbertson, H. R., Reed, K., Clark, S., Francis, K. L., & Cameron, F. J. (2018). An audit of the dietary intake
of Australian children with type 1 diabetes. Nutrition & diabetes , 10.
Hesketh, K. R., O’Malley, C., Paes, V. M., Moore, H., Summerbell, C., Ong, K. K., et al. (2017).
Determinants of change in physical activity in children 0–6 years of age: a systematic review of
quantitative literature. Sports medicine , 1349-1374.
Lobstein, T., Jackson-Leach, R., Moodie, M. L., Hall, K. D., Gortmaker, S. L., Swinburn, B. A., et al. (2015).
Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture. The Lancet , 2510-2520.
Louie, J. C., & Tapsell, L. C. (2015). Intake of total and added sugars and nutrient dilution in Australian
children and adolescents. British Journal of Nutrition , 1875-1886.
Mazarello Paes, V., Hesketh, K., O'Malley, C., Moore, H., Summerbell, C., Griffin, S., et al. (2015).
Determinants of sugar sweetened beverage consumption in young children: a systematic review.‐
Obesity Reviews , 903-913.
T Okada, T. O. (2010). Impact of leptin and leptin-receptor gene polymorphisms on serum lipids in
Japanese obese children. 8.
Tonkin, E., Kennedy, D., Golley, R., Byrne, R., Rohit, A., Kearns, T., et al. (2018). The Relative Validity of
the Menzies Remote Short-Item Dietary Assessment Tool (MRSDAT) in Aboriginal Australian Children
Aged 6–36 Months. Nutrients , 590.

9 | P a g e
Vercammen, K. A., Frelier, J. M., Lowery, C. M., McGlone, M. E., Ebbeling, C. B., & Bleich, S. N. (2018). A
systematic review of strategies to reduce sugar sweetened beverage consumption among 0 year to 5‐ ‐ ‐
year olds. Obesity Reviews , 1504-1524.
Watson, E. J., Coates, A. M., Banks, S., & Kohler, M. (2018). Total dietary sugar consumption does not
influence sleep or behaviour in Australian children. International journal of food sciences and nutrition ,
503-512.
Whitrow, M. J., Moran, L., Davies, M. J., Collins, C. E., Burrows, T. L., Edwards, S., et al. (2016). Core food
intakes of Australian children aged 9–10 years: nutrients, daily servings and diet quality in a community
cross sectional sample.‐ Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics , 449-457.
Winpenny, E. M., Penney, T. L., Corder, K., White, M., & van Sluijs, E. M. (2017). Changes in consumption
of added sugars from age 13 to 30 years: a systematic review and meta analysis of longitudinal studies.‐
Obesity Reviews , 1336-1349.