Sugar consumption in Switzerland is 110 grams per person per day, more than double the amount recommended by the World Health Organization. Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella
High sugar consumption in Switzerland is a serious public health problem. It contributes to obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases. However, it is unlikely that Swiss politicians will do anything about this in the near future.
This content was published on July 16, 2023 July 16, 2023
Sara Ibrahim
Sweets, chocolate, soft drinks: the Swiss love everything that contains sugar. Sugar consumption in Swiss households is one of the highest in EuropeExternal link: It is more than double the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended intake of 50 grams per person per day.
As early as 2015, the WHO sounded the alarm about excessive sugar consumption and the increase in obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
In Switzerland, where at least 40% of the adult population is overweight, four out of five people die from these diseases. The associated healthcare costs will increase over 50 billion Swiss francs per yearExternal link estimated – that’s 80% of the total healthcare costs.
Countries like France, Belgium and the UK have taken action to reduce sugar levels in food and drink. Be it through sugar taxes, clearer labeling or a ban on advertising aimed at young people.
The Swiss authorities, on the other hand, have not introduced any of these measures, despite appeals from health organizations.
“If we don’t want to become like the US, where 50% of the population is obese and/or diabetic, we have to act as soon as possible,” says Virginie Mansuy-Aubert. The scientist at the University of Lausanne is an expert on the interaction between nutrition and healthy intestinal flora.
But politicians are reluctant to slow down the multi-billion dollar food industry, which also includes the giant Nestlé. It is headquartered in Vevey near Lausanne.
Sugar is ok, but in moderation
Sugar itself is not to be demonized as it is essential for the proper functioning of our body. Glucose is one of the most important sugars for energy production.
It is formed during the digestion of carbohydrates in foods such as pasta, grains, fruit and vegetables. Several studies have shown that glucose played a key role in the development of the human brain.
Via the digestive tract, it enters the bloodstream and, through the action of the hormone insulin, it enters the various cells of the human body in order to “nourish” them.
>> Video: How sugar damages cells and causes obesity, diabetes, cancer and other serious diseases:
The problems start when the dose is too high. Since the middle of the 19th century, the Sugar consumption in SwitzerlandExternal link almost twelvefold, from around 8 to 110 grams per person per day.
“This huge increase is worrying,” says Leonie Chinet, general secretary of Diabète Vaud, the association for people with diabetes in the canton of Vaud.
When we eat too much sugar, the excess glucose is converted into body fat, leading to obesity. In addition, high glucose levels can lead to tissue and cell damage, inflammation and chronic disease over time.
The global increase in obesity and related diseases is worrying the Swiss health and consumer organizations. You’ve decided to go on the offensive.
For example, in May this year, Diabète Vaud launched a public campaign, or rather a “challenge”, entitled “MAYbe Less Sugar” to help people become more aware of their actual sugar consumption.
Those who signed up were able to use the calculator in the personal area of the campaign website to calculate the amount of added sugar they consume each day. Chinet is very happy with the result: almost 7000 people took part, much more than expected.
However, the data collected as part of the initiative showed that only a small proportion of them belonged to the population groups most affected by excessive sugar consumption: young people and people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
“It is difficult to involve these people in prevention campaigns. That is why structural measures are necessary,” says Chinet.
Hidden sugars in many foods
“Sugar is hidden everywhere,” says researcher Mansuy-Aubert. At an event as part of the “MAYbe less sugar” campaign, the expert helped a group of young people calculate their sugar consumption.
The young men and women were surprised at how high their sugar consumption was, even though they drank no soft drinks and ate no sweets. “The problem is that all the processed foods we eat contain sugar, but we often don’t know it,” says Mansuy-Aubert.
Refined sugars and syrups are added to foods like ham, lasagna, pizza, and processed cheese to make them tastier. “The result is that we want to eat these foods again and in larger amounts, without really knowing why,” says Mansuy-Aubert.
Added sugar is likely processed differently by human metabolism than sugar from fruits or unprocessed foods.
Because it is not bound to other nutrients such as fiber, which counteract a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. This leads to spikes in blood sugar, which increase the risk of diabetes.
When pleasure leads to addiction
However, these spikes in blood sugar also give us an immediate sense of reward. Eating sugar stimulates the sweetness receptors in the mouth and the glucose receptors in the gut, which are connected to the brain via neural pathways.
This releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which gives us a feeling of satisfaction and influences our desire for more food.
“Sugar activates the reward circuit in the brain. In that sense, it acts like a drug,” says neuroscientist Serge Ahmed of the University of Bordeaux. He researches the psychological mechanisms of sugar addiction and its similarity to drug addiction.
In a study, AhmedExternal link, that rats who drink sugar water release dopamine much faster than those who are injected with cocaine intravenously. This made direct consumption more rewarding for them.
This research suggests that a high-sugar diet is highly stimulating to the nervous system and produces an extraordinary reward signal that may contribute to a form of addiction.
Ahmed believes the causes lie in evolution: Mammals such as rats and humans would have evolved in low-sugar environments and therefore not adapted to high concentrations of the substance. “This poses a major public health problem,” says the scientist.
Regulation of sugar unlikely
To get the problem under control, several countries such as the UK, France and Mexico have taken measures such as a tax on sugary drinks and food. The positive effects of the sugar tax are widely recognised.
In Switzerland, Parliament recently rejected a similar proposal. Instead, the country relies on non-binding measures such as the Milan Declaration.
Companies that sign this declaration voluntarily undertake to reduce the sugar content in their breakfast products or soft drinks.
>> Video: Is the industry doing enough to reduce the amount of sugar in beverages?
This is where different interests come into play. According to Manuela Weichelt, national councilor of the Greens and president of the Alliance for Nutrition and Health, the multi-billion dollar agri-food industry – many of them based in Switzerland – is lobbying to keep sugar out of the sight of Swiss lawmakers.
The efforts of the companies go beyond the Swiss borders. One Research by the NGO Public EyeExternal link revealed that the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) is said to have intervened on behalf of Nestlé in Mexico in 2019 to prevent the introduction of warnings on unhealthy food.
When asked, the Seco replied by email that it had not acted in the interests of a company, but in accordance with World Trade Organization principlesExternal link (WTO), which protects member countries from measures that could disadvantage trade in their goods.
In Switzerland, political support for sugar is even more widespread, says Patrick Dümmler, research associate at the liberal think tank Avenir Suisse.
Every year, Switzerland promotes and subsidizes the cultivation of sugar beet for domestic sugar production with millions of Swiss francs in public funds.
“It’s schizophrenic to use public money to grow and refine sugar beet and at the same time finance campaigns to reduce sugar consumption,” says Dümmler. Industry agreements on voluntary reductions are more effective than a sugar tax, he says.
In view of the wide range of interests, Weichelt does not expect the sugar laws to be tightened any time soon. “Sugar is untouchable in Switzerland,” says the politician.
Edited by Sabrina Weiss and Veronica De Vore, translated from Italian by Christian Raaflaub
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