Health Farm

Sugar consumption in Australia has flat-lined, with pundits attributing the crystalline commodity’s changing fortunes to a combination of rising appetites for low sugar and sugar-free options, and state-sponsored advertising linking sugar with rotting teeth and fatty organs.

Good job. Let’s hope the nation’s weight gain, chronic inflammation, and other sugar-soaked ailments take a turn for the better.

Lust for a sugar rush

But there’s still plenty of the sweet stuff around. Australians consumed 10.8 kilograms per person of sugar and sweeteners in 2018, according to Euromonitor data.

That’s less than North America’s 11.5 kilograms per person, but more than China (5.5 kilograms per person) and India (8.9 kilograms) …. and not a patch on Malaysia, one of the top users in Asia Pacific, with consumption last year at 31.5 kilograms of sugar and sweeteners per person.

Malaysia’s sweetening tooth is indicative of Asia’s rising lust for a sugar rush. The region accounts for over 40 per cent of the world’s sugar consumption, with a 15 per cent uptick recorded over the last decade, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Good news for sugar cane growers, bad news for health

With Asia picking up the slack from Australia’s sugar low, Rabobank is forecasting a 4.3 million metric tonne worldwide sugar deficit in 2019-20 (likely to push up prices) compared to this year’s 1.1 million tonne surplus. Sugar lovers beware. Sugar-sweetened beverages are blamed for an estimated 184,000 premature deaths worldwide per year.

Sugar ain’t so sweet.