Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes a new press release from Massachusetts General Hospital: Cutting 20% of sugar from packaged foods and 40% from beverages could prevent 2.48 million cardiovascular disease events (such as strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrests), 490,000 cardiovascular deaths, and 750,000 diabetes cases in the U.S. over the lifetime of the adult population, reports a study published in Circulation…
More than two in five American adults are obese, one in two have diabetes or prediabetes, and nearly one in two have cardiovascular disease, with those from lower-income groups being disproportionately burdened.
Their model suggests that after 10 years, America could save $4.28 billion in total net healthcare costs, and $118.04 billion over the lifetime of the current adult population (ages 35 to 79), according to the announcement.
It also points out that America “lags other countries in implementing strong sugar-reduction policies.” And the study’s co-senior author (also a dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University) says their findings “suggest it’s time to implement a national program with voluntary sugar reduction targets, which can generate major improvements in health, health disparities, and healthcare spending in less than a decade.”
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