Everyone craves a little bit of something sweet every now and again, but a new study indicates that you may experience more cravings in the future than you might expect.
There can be a lot of factors which could have an impact on whether we want to indulge in something sugary, but according to a new study, there could be one thing which has an unexpected effect on cravings.
The study looked at environmental factors and how they impacted on the consumption of food and drink which is high in sugar.
And it did in fact find a connection between an increased consumption of sugary products and one environmental factor in particular.
So, what is it?
Well, it's quite a big environmental factor, because it's climate change.
More specifically, the study found that as temperatures rise, people are more likely to want to indulge in sugary drinks.
This summer saw the UK experience repeated heatwaves, and when the mercury starts rising, there are a lot of sweet beverages out there to help cool off.
It could be a soda of some sort, milkshakes, spirits and mixers. Even squashes, cordials, and fruit juices have a lot of sugar in them.
Duo Chan, co-author of the study, said that it saw a correlation between rising temperatures and consumption of sweet beverages, and that itself may come with additional problems, because too much sugar is bad for your health.
In a statement, the co-author said: "People tend to take in more sweetened beverages as the temperature is getting higher and higher. Obviously, under a warming climate, that would cause you to drink more or take in more sugar. And that is going to be a severe problem when it comes to health."
The impact of this is clear, with the study projecting: "Future climate change will aggravate health risks related to added sugar intake, particularly for socio-economically disadvantaged populations whose average daily intake already exceeds 10% of the recommendations from the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and almost 20% of the recommendations from the American Heart Association."
It was also clear in the study that households with a lower income were affected more than those with a higher income.
The Associated Press did point out that in real terms, the increase in sugar consumption 'doesn't amount to even a single candy bar for the average person'.
However, the point of the study was to look at the cumulative impact of this increase.
It may be tempting to indulge in a sugary drink in a heatwave, and while this is fine sometimes, if you're drinking a lot of sugary drinks, it certainly will not be good for you in the long term.
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Kit Roberts