Honestly, we share the underlying concern. Rising global temperature are a threat to our health and welfare. But twisting a scientific paper to make the point doesn’t help. It actually hurts the cause. New research in Nature Climate Change documents an association between added sugar consumption and rising temperatures. That’s a fair question to study.

But what’s not right is the claim in the title of the study: “Rising temperatures increase added sugar intake disproportionately in disadvantaged groups in the USA.”

The association these researchers found is simply not evidence for a causal relationship between climate change and added sugar consumption. Maybe higher temperatures cause more added sugar consumption. Or maybe it is something else that explains this correlation.

Nowhere in this paper is there any mention of the limitations of this observational research for supporting conclusions about a causal relationship between climate and sugar consumption.

The Media Multiplier

With permission from an academic journal, popular media feels free to go wild with this shaky assertion. “Scientists find a surprising reason why people are eating more sugar,” says CNN. “Warmer weather drives Americans to consume more sugar” is the headline from CBS.

Trust in media reports and academic research is low. Giving people a reason for distrust makes it worse.

Food and Climate

These inflated claims are especially troubling precisely because the relationship between food and climate is actually quite significant and important. The International Institute for Sustainable Development describes this succinctly:

“Climate change is one of the greatest threats to global food security. Rising temperatures, alteration of the precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events disrupt food production systems worldwide.”

In this context, hype about climate change and sugar consumption is a counterproductive distraction. It’s good for clicks, but not much else.

Click here for the paper, here, here, and here for a sampling of the news coverage.

The Last Angel, painting by Nicholas Roerich / WikiArt