Dietary total sugar intake of Koreans: Based on the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), 2008-2011 / 한국영양학회지

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to estimate total sugar intake and identify major food sources of total sugar intake in the diet of the Korean population. METHODS: Dietary intake data of 33,745 subjects aged one year and over from the KNHANES 2008-2011 were used in the analysis. Information on dietary intake was obtained by one day 24-hour recall method in KNHANES. A database for total sugar content of foods reported in the KNHANES was established using Release 25 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, a total sugar database from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and information from nutrition labeling of processed foods. With this database, total sugar intake of each subject was estimated from dietary intake data using SAS. RESULTS: Mean total sugar intake of Koreans was 61.4 g/person/day, corresponding to 12.8% of total daily energy intake. More than half of this amount (35.0 g/day, 7.1% of daily energy intake) was from processed foods. The top five processed food sources of total sugar intake for Koreans were granulated sugar, carbonated beverages, coffee, breads, and fruit and vegetable drinks. Compared to other age groups, total sugar intake of adolescents and young adults was much higher (12 to 18 yrs, 69.6 g/day and 19 to 29 yrs, 68.4 g/day) with higher beverage intake that beverage-driven sugar amounted up to 25% of total sugar intake. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that more elaborated and customized measures are needed for control of sugar intake of different subpopulation groups, even though current total sugar intake of Koreans was within the range (10-20% of daily energy intake) recommended by Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans. In addition, development of a more reliable database on total sugar and added sugar content of foods commonly consumed by Koreans is warranted.

Breast-feeding and Obesity in Early Childhood: Based on the KNHANES 2008 through 2011 / 대한지역사회영양학회지

Although there has been a significant increase in breast-feeding (BF) rate in Korea, it is plateaued since 2008 and still low compared with that of other countries. Because BF has been related to lower obesity prevalence in many studies and the increase in childhood obesity became evident in Korea, we wondered if a relatively lower BF rate has anything to do with this increase. Therefore, we looked into the relationship between mode & duration of BF during infancy and weight status of toddlers using the data from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008 through 2011. Number of 2-3 year old toddlers with complete information on BF, anthropometry and normal birth weight was 674. While 87% of them were ever-breastfed, 6.2% each of them were either obese or overweight based on the Standard Growth Chart for Korean Children. Not only the obesity prevalence was different among groups of different mode of feeding, but also the mean duration of BF was significantly longer in normal weight group (9.2 mo.) compared with obese group (5.5 mo.). Accordingly, overweight and obesity prevalence of the toddlers breast-fed for 12 months or longer was significantly lower than that of the toddlers breast-fed for less than 12 months (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.32-0.87). This study revealed that both BF and duration of BF affect the childhood obesity and, BF for 12 months or longer should be encouraged more aggressively as one of the main strategies to prevent and/or decrease childhood obesity in Korea.