(Press-News.org) Taxes on sugary drinks reduce the risk of gestational diabetes and unhealthy weight gain in pregnant women, reports a new UC San Francisco study of more than 5 million women.
Published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, this is the first study to examine how sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes affect the health of mothers and children immediately before and after birth. Researchers compared mothers who were living in cities that had SSB taxes in effect while they were pregnant to mothers in cities with no SSB taxes. In addition to significantly lowering the risk of diabetes and unhealthy weight gain in pregnant mothers, there was a much lower risk of having an overly small fetus.
“All three of these outcomes are important for health later in life, for both the mother and child,” said senior author Justin White, PhD, associate professor of health economics at UCSF’s Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. “If you can reduce risk at this key developmental stage, it can have long-lasting health benefits.”
In the general population, sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. SSBs are the largest source of added sugar for pregnant individuals, who consume 50% more calories from added sugar than is recommended, the authors wrote in the study published March 24, 2023.
A Strong Policy Argument
Researchers used national birth certificate data to study 5,324,548 U.S. pregnant women and their offspring from 2013 through 2019. At the time, the five cities with SSB taxes were Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Oakland and Berkeley, and data from those cities were compared with dozens of cities without the taxes.
SSB taxes were associated with a 41.4% lower risk of gestational diabetes; a 7.9% lower risk of unhealthy weight gain for gestational age; and 39.1% lower risk of infants being born small for gestational age. Researchers controlled for demographic and city-level factors that could have accounted for differences, such as race, socio-economic status and retail environment.
The taxes didn’t appear to affect blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) during pregnancy, or low birthweight and preterm status of the infant.
About 50 countries have implemented SSB taxes in the last decade, and research indicates they have helped reduce consumption of sugary beverages. Research on the health effects is limited, however, with one large study in Mexico showing a reduction in obesity rates while another in Mauritius showed no effects. At the same time, modeling studies indicate that SSB taxes lower the risk of chronic disease in the general population.
“It can be challenging to measure the effects of sugary drink taxes on health outcomes like type 2 diabetes, which can take decades to develop,” said White. “But showing that we can improve health during the relatively short, and critical, window of pregnancy—and thus have lifelong health effects for the mother and child—makes a strong policy argument for these taxes.”
Authors: In addition to White, authors include Kaitlyn E. Jackson, MPH; Rita Hamad, MD, PhD, and Deborah Karasek, PhD, MPH, all of UCSF.
Funding: The study is supported in part by Karasek's award from the UCSF-Kaiser Department of Research Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Program from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) [K12 HD052163], as well as in part by. Hamad's award from the National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (2P30 DK092924).
Disclosures: Please see the paper for a complete list of disclosures.
About UCSF: The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF's primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area. UCSF School of Medicine also has a regional campus in Fresno. Learn more at https://ucsf.edu, or see our Fact Sheet.
###
Follow UCSF
ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsf
END
Tax on sugary drinks helps health during pregnancy
2023-03-28
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Technology to protect bioactive compounds from food during digestion
2023-03-28
Bioactive compounds present mostly in fruit and vegetables perform different bodily functions relating to health and well-being. Their effects are considered antioxidant, antidiabetic, antiaging and anticancer, among others.
Many studies are looking for ways to optimize absorption of bioactive compounds by the organism and increase their bioavailability – the proportion that enters the bloodstream after absorption. One way is to coat the compounds with another material and package them on the nanometric scale (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter). Nanoencapsulation, as this technique is known, assures slow release of the compounds so that they take longer to digest and can survive ...
New drug combination holds unusually positive results for HPV-negative patients with advanced head and neck cancer
2023-03-28
WASHINGTON (March 28, 2023)— A new combination drug treatment showed promising results in patients with pan-refractory, recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer, according to a study published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Head and neck cancer is a deadly form of cancer that arises in the lining of the mouth and throat. Worldwide more than 700,000 people were diagnosed with head and neck cancer in 2021. The disease is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) or environmental carcinogens, including the regular use of tobacco or alcohol. When the cancer comes back after curative ...
NASA wallops supports second rocket lab electron launch
2023-03-28
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility supported the successful launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket at 6:39 p.m. EDT, Thursday, March 16, from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.
The mission, named “Stronger Together,” carried two, 100-kilogram commercial satellites to low-Earth orbit for Capella Space.
“I’m extremely proud of the NASA team that helped ensure a safe and successful launch operation today,” said ...
Researchers find new molecule that shows promise in slowing SARS-CoV-2
2023-03-28
Researchers have designed a molecule that slows the effects of one of SARS-CoV-2's more dangerous components – an enzyme called a protease that cuts off the immune system's communications and helps the virus replicate.
While much more needs to happen to develop a drug, scientists can begin to imagine what that drug could look like – thanks to new images of the molecule bound to the protease.
“We have been searching for an effective molecule like this one for a while,” said Suman Pokhrel, a Stanford University graduate student in chemical and systems biology and one of the paper’s lead authors. “It is ...
Rural educators find solutions to support multilingual learners
2023-03-28
A new study found a professional development program helped teachers in a rural school district in the Southeast to collaborate and identify innovative solutions to serve multilingual learners, or students learning English as a second language.
The study, published in the Journal of Research in Rural Education, suggests professional development can help prepare teachers in rural districts that have fewer resources and a growing need to support multilingual learners.
“Professional development is essential in rural communities, where you might not have resources for specialists like a literacy coach, bilingual school psychologist, or bilingual family engagement specialist,” ...
Retinal scans: A non-invasive, inexpensive method to track human aging
2023-03-28
Buck Institute professor Pankaj Kapahi thinks the eye is a window to aging. His lab, in collaboration with Google Health and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, has shown how imaging of the fundus, the blood vessel-rich tissue in the retina, can be used to track human aging, in a way that is noninvasive, less expensive and more accurate than other aging clocks that are currently available. Publishing in eLife, researchers also did a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to establish the genetic basis for such a clock, which they call eyeAge.
“This type of imaging could be really ...
New additives could turn concrete into an effective carbon sink
2023-03-28
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Despite the many advantages of concrete as a modern construction material, including its high strength, low cost, and ease of manufacture, its production currently accounts for approximately 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Recent discoveries by a team at MIT have revealed that introducing new materials into existing concrete manufacturing processes could significantly reduce this carbon footprint, without altering concrete’s bulk mechanical properties.
The findings are published today in the ...
Fluorescent visualization and evaluation of NPC1L1-mediated cholesterol absorption at the levels of endocytic vesicles
2023-03-28
Excessive cholesterol absorption from intestinal lumen contributes to the pathogenesis of hypercholesterolemia, which is a well-established risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The absorption of intestinal cholesterol is primarily mediated by Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) protein, which is responsible for about 70% cholesterol absorption. NPC1L1-deficient mice are resistant to diet-induced hypercholesterolemia, which provides a compelling strategy for intervention the related diseases through inhibiting NPC1L1 expression or activity.
NPC1L1 protein is expressed in the brush border membrane of small intestine. The protein is extensively N-glycosylated ...
Biden-Harris Administration announces recipients of the Enrico Fermi Award
2023-03-28
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced Darleane C. Hoffman and Gabor A. Somorjai as recipients of the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award, one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology honors bestowed by the U.S. government.
“Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Somorjai’s work to open the frontiers of radiochemistry and surface chemistry helped change what was possible, and advanced efforts to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges,” said Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Arati Prabhakar. “They are world-class ...
We've learned a lot from lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus—now the time has come to fight it
2023-03-28
Key findings:
There are no vaccines or therapies available for lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection. This pathogen spreads easily and is extremely common in people worldwide.
Infection with LCMV can cause birth defects in developing fetuses, and severe illness and even death in the immuncompromised.
New findings from La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) scientists show how an engineered antibody can target LCMV and neutralize the virus. They found this antibody has the potential to both prevent infection and treat an already established infection.
With this better understanding of LCMV's weak spots, scientists can move forward ...