Virginia Tech researchers have introduced an innovative tool to improve global healthy hydration guidelines, addressing the surge in sugary beverage consumption linked to health issues like obesity and diabetes.
Researchers at Virginia Tech has created an innovative tool designed to enhance the effectiveness of healthy beverage recommendations worldwide, addressing the increasing public health challenges posed by sugary drinks.
The new tool, introduced by a team of researchers led by Nicole Leary, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, assigns a healthy hydration recommendation score. This score helps governments refine their dietary guidelines to clearly promote water as the default healthy beverage over sugary alternatives.
“It’s important for us to understand how sugary beverage tax legislation is aligned with national food-based dietary guidelines that promote water and other healthy beverages such as milk and 100 percent juice,” Leary said in a news release. “We looked at how robust dietary guidelines could complement other policy, system and environmental change strategies for governments to promote policy coherence and socially normalize water as the default healthy beverage.”
The rise in sugary beverage consumption globally has been linked to numerous health issues, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay.
To analyze the comprehensiveness and clarity of healthy beverage guidelines, the researchers reviewed the dietary guidelines of countries that enacted sugary beverage tax legislation from 2000 to 2023.
Their findings reveal that out of the 93 countries with sugary beverage taxes, 58 had food-based dietary guidelines. Among these, 48 countries had messages that both encouraged water consumption and discouraged sugary beverages. Countries like Bolivia, Peru and Brunei received the highest scores in the assessment, while the United States obtained a modest score of 7 (out of 12).
“We need to be actively promoting people drinking water at each meal,” added senior author Vivica Kraak, an associate professor in human nutrition, foods and exercise. “When governments develop policies, they should ensure that national dietary guidelines align with and support a national sugary beverage tax. Our study has important implications for United Nations organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organizations, to provide countries support to develop culturally adapted, evidence-informed dietary guidelines that encourage healthy hydration and normalize clean, safe and free water as the beverage of choice.”
The research, published in the journal Nutrients, underscores the significance of comprehensive guidelines in improving public health on a global scale.
Key recommendations from the Virginia Tech team include drinking at least eight glasses of water daily, limiting the intake of sugary beverages, implementing taxes on sugar-sweetened drinks with revenues allocated to health promotion activities and reducing the consumption of artificial and zero-calorie sweeteners.
As global health bodies and national governments strive for improved public health outcomes, this new tool from Virginia Tech offers a promising pathway to better hydration habits and reduced health risks associated with sugary beverages.