Iran Press/ Europe: According to a recent survey by market research firm Euromonitor, 37% of consumers globally are looking for products with no sugar, no added sugar, or low sugar.
Overconsumption of sugar has long been connected to disease—it’s cited as a contributing factor to obesity, which has tripled globally since the 1970s, and cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death globally. Obesity is also a factor in Type 2 diabetes, which afflicts hundreds of millions of people around the world.
In a 2021 nutrition survey on reasons to avoid sugar, more than 57% of respondents said doing so “makes them feel healthier.” An equally high percentage reported, “I should avoid these ingredients.”
The coronavirus pandemic has helped accelerate this trend, as some 79% of global consumers said they’re planning to eat and drink more healthily over the next year, according to a report by consumer research firm FMCG Gurus. Of those consumers, 56% plan to reduce sugar intake.
In most cases, the new crop of sweeteners is derived from natural substances—including traditional sugar itself, otherwise known as sucrose. In a consumer market increasingly focused on healthier eating, that may come in handy.
Despite decades of medical admonitions, sugar is still pretty much everywhere. It’s currently found in 60% of packaged foods sold in the US, which has one of the highest sugar intakes of any nation.
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