Sugar overload: Half of Dutch youth consume 17 glasses of soft drinks a week
By Simone Jacobs
In a week, the average young person in the Netherlands aged 12 to 16 drinks 9,5 glasses of sugary drinks. Every second teen drinks 16,5 glasses per week, equivalent to 90 sugar cubes and significantly higher than the recommended sugar allowance.
Weekly soft drink consumption among Dutch youth surpasses WHO advice
A study by the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service (GGD) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam found that 50 percent of children aged 12 to 16 drink 16,5 glasses of sugary soft drinks each week. The research includes regular soft drinks, fruit juice, lemonades, iced tea, sports drinks and energy drinks - basically “all sugary drinks that have little or no nutritional value”.
"I was quite surprised by the results of our study," health scientist Rian Pepping told NOS. "The more sugar you consume, the greater your risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes." One in seven children is overweight.
16,5 glasses of soft drinks are equivalent to 90 sugar cubes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that a 12-year-old girl with a moderately active lifestyle not consume more than 44 sugar cubes a week, and a 16-year-old boy with a very active lifestyle not exceed 78 sugar cubes. One sugar cube is approximately 4 grams of sugar.
This means that many young people in the Netherlands are consuming much more sugar than advised, in the form of soft drinks, before taking into account the rest of their diet. An earlier study by Maastricht UMC+ found that drinking one glass of soda per day increases the risk of high blood pressure by nearly a third.
Researchers push for tax on sugary drinks
Most young people get their soft drinks from supermarkets, but they were also shown to be more likely to drink sugary drinks if they were present in the home. The majority of participants in the survey said they would stop buying soft drinks if a 330-millilitre can cost more than 3 euros.
The government plans on introducing a sugar tax from 2030, which would apply to all food and drinks with more than 6 percent of sugar. However, researchers are urging the cabinet to take action sooner by imposing an additional tax on sugary drinks immediately.
A “smart sugar tax” is being suggested, where the more sugar a drink has, the more tax you pay. This would not only encourage consumers to make healthier choices but also persuade manufacturers to put less sugar in their products.
There is currently a sugar tax on all non-alcoholic beverages in the Netherlands, such as non-alcoholic beers, fruit juices and sodas, but they are all taxed the same at 26,13 euros per 100 litres, no matter how much sugar they contain.
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Editor for the Netherlands at IamExpat Media. Simone studied Genetics and Zoology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa before moving to the Netherlands, where she has been working as a writer and editor since 2022. One thing she loves more than creating content is consuming it, mainly by reading books by the dozen. Other than being a book dragon, she is also a nature lover and enjoys hiking and animal training.Read more