Discount drinks a sugar hit

ABOUT two thirds of drink specials at Australia’s two largest supermarkets are for sugary products, undermining efforts to reduce obesity and promote healthy diets.

An Australian-first study examining which non-alcoholic beverages were most frequently discounted found 73 per cent and 71 per cent of price promotions at Coles and Woolworths respectively were for sugary drinks in any given week. This included soft drinks, cordials, flavoured water, iced tea and energy drinks as well as flavoured milk and 100 per cent juice.

Drinks with artificial sweeteners including diet cordial and diet soft drinks made up 16 to 18 per cent of all price-promoted beverages at Coles and Woolworths.

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health research also found diet and sugar-sweetened soft drinks has the heaviest discounts at 29 to 40 per cent.

Water and plain milk were the least likely to be promoted.

The researchers wrote that policies to restrict price promotions on sugar-sweetened beverages were likely to be an important part of any approach to reduce obesity.