The findings showed that children and young people living in more deprived areas and lower income families were more likely to consume energy drinks than those in more affluent areas and more wealthy families. had increased between 2008 and 2016. Adolescents living in the most deprived areas continued to increase their energy drink intake over this time period, but consumption dropped among those living in wealthier neighbourhoods.
We also found that energy drink intake increases with age, regardless of gender. Markers of poor health, including poorer dietary quality, higher calorie intake and higher body weight laos rcs data were also associated with higher energy drink intake.
Collectively, these findings provide a worrying picture of inequalities among children and young in the UK, and that it is getting worse.
Raise ban to 18
Published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, we called for a ban on the sale of energy drinks to young people under 18 years of age. With this policy topic back on the political agenda in the midst of an election campaign, we are renewing this call.
Restrictions on selling energy drinks to under-16s were originally proposed in ‘Advancing our Health: prevention in the 2020s’. Released in 2019, it said that the UK Government intended to introduce a ban on the sale of energy drinks to that age group, but further action was not taken and a critical age group, 16–18-year-olds, was missing.