51 - Assessing Intake of Added Sugar from Food Among Latino Toddlers to Inform Population Specific Nutritional Counseling

Excess consumption of added sugar contributes to risk of obesity, caries, and cardiometabolic disease. Latino children are at elevated risk for these conditions. Early and culturally tailored interventions may lead to long-term healthy dietary habits. Yet, population-specific research on added sugar intake from food remains insufficient to guide nutritional counseling.

Objective:

Estimate added sugar intake from food and determine top sources of added sugar from food among Latino toddlers and preschoolers

Design/Methods:

This was a cross sectional study conducted at a federally qualified health center in San Francisco, CA. Participants were Latino parents and their children ages 12-59 months (n=106). Parents completed three 24-hour dietary recalls capturing child intake and a demographic survey. Data was entered into the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR) for analysis. Mean daily consumption of added and total sugars from food was calculated. Added sugar content and reported frequency of consumption were used to identify food categories with significant contribution to total added sugar from food consumed by the population. Selection criteria were food items with more than 5 g of added sugar, either per serving according to label information or as reported intake, and frequency of consumption above 5% of all participants. For each identified category, we determined the percent contribution to total added sugar intake from food. In addition, we calculated the mean daily added sugar in grams from the top five foods contributing to added sugar intake. 

Results:

Parents were primarily immigrants from Central America and were Spanish speaking (Table 1). Mean daily sugar intake from all reported food consumed was 28.4 g, and of that 10 g was from added sugar. Five food categories were identified as key contributors to added sugar content of consumed foods: yogurt, pancake syrup, pan dulce (a sweet bread), cereal, and cookies (Table 2). These five food categories combined accounted for almost 70% of all added sugars from food. The three categories with the highest percentage contribution to added sugars from food were yogurt (19.3%), pancake syrup (16.5%), and pan dulce (14.5%).

Conclusion(s):

During nutritional counseling, healthy alternatives to sweetened yogurt and cereal should be recommended; these foods have many low or no added sugar alternatives. Nutritional education, as well as development of food intake questionnaires, should include pancake syrup and pan dulce so that their contribution to added sugar intake is not overlooked.