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Abstract
BackgroundSugar overconsumption is a major contributor to overweight and obesity, with daily consumption greatly exceeding the WHO’s recommendations. The aim of the present study was to determine whether using a functionally modified sugar shaker as a food environment nudge could be an effective means to reduce the sugar used in hot beverages.MethodsSugar shakers were functionally modified to reduce the amount of sugar in each pour by 47%. A real-world experiment was conducted to compare the amount of added sugar per hot beverage during default and nudge conditions over the course of four weeks (17,233 hot beverages sold) in a university take-away café. In addition, 59 customers were surveyed to evaluate the acceptance of the intervention.ResultsModifying the functional design of sugar shakers resulted in a reduction of added sugar by 20% (d = 1.35) compared to the default condition. In the survey, most participants evaluated the intervention strategy positively.ConclusionThe present real-world experiment demonstrates that a simple environmental intervention can significantly reduce sugar consumption in public places while meeting with consumer approval, making it a promising means of reducing sugar overconsumption.
Highlights
Sugar overconsumption poses a major health threat
Sugar use Of the 17,233 hot beverages and 12,589 g of sugar that were used in total, 8533 hot beverages and 6887 g of sugar were used in the default condition and 8700 hot beverages and 5702 g of sugar in the nudge condition
An average of 0.81 g (SD = 0.13) of sugar was used per hot beverage in the default condition, ranging between 0.66 g and 1.06 g per day
Summary
Actual consumption of sugar greatly exceeds the WHO’s recommendation of 5 to 10% of the total energy intake [1, 2] In this context, the way in which people sweeten hot beverages such as coffee, which is one of the most heavily consumed daily drinks in the Western world, constitutes an increasing problem [2, 3]. Greenfield et al [7, 8] reported that the amount of salt added at the table by Australian consumers in varying settings such as cafeterias or restaurants increased with the size or number of the salt shaker holes This positive relationship between salt added at the table and area of the salt shaker hole was replicated in a canteen of a local company in the United Kingdom [9]. The aim of the present study was to determine whether using a functionally modified sugar shaker as a food environment nudge could be an effective means to reduce the sugar used in hot beverages
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