Trends in consumption and purchases of products sweetened with caloric and low‐calorie sweeteners among U.S. households, 2000–2010

Abstract

Current food databases might not capture rapid changes in the food supply, such as increased use of both caloric (CS) and low‐calorie sweeteners (LCS) in products.Using the Nielsen Homescan longitudinal dataset 2000–10 (n=523,445) and NHANES 2003–10 (n=36,802), we explored trends in purchases and intake of foods and beverages containing LCS, CS or both (LCS+CS) among U.S. households (HH); as well as SES and HH predictors of these patterns. We estimated percapita intake and purchases (ml/day); and % consumers and % HHs purchasing products containing LCS, CS or LCS+CS. We estimated change in purchases associated with SES and HH variables using average marginal effects from random‐effects longitudinal models.From 2000–2011, trends in per capita intake and purchases decreased for CS products, but increased for LCS products. In particular, per capita and % HH purchasing LCS+CS products increased among all types of HH and particularly among HH with children. Factors such as African‐American HH; Hispanic HH and presence of children were associated with increased % of CS purchases (+11%; +4%; +3% resp., P<0.001) and decreased % of LCS daily beverage purchases (−14%; −6%; −2% resp., P<0.001). Higher income was associated with decreased CS (−2.4%, P<0.001) and increased LCS +1.3%, P<0.001) daily beverage purchases.We found unique trends in products containing LCS+CS, which are rising particularly among HH with children.Grant Funding Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant 70017; National Institutes of Health R01‐HD030880 R01‐ HL104580 R01‐HL114091 R01‐HL108427