Tapioca milk tea, the most popular beverage in Taiwan, is consumed a lot by Taiwanese which contributed to their daily sugar intake. Our study purpose is to investigate whether limiting intake of tapioca milk tea is useful for the control of sugar intake in Taiwanese. The study was conducted in questionnaires selected 38 subjects, 20-24 y, from 341 university students in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Subjects were match-paired by sex, age, department, and randomly divided into two groups for cross-over design in which each group had 1 week with or without tapioca milk tea. Other beverages and foods were allowed freely in both periods. Each group member recorded their own daily sugary intake for two weeks and was confirmed by researchers the next day. The average sugar intakes with or without tapioca milk tea were similar between the two treatments (p 0.05), 58.4 23.2 g/day and 56.5 22.2 g/day (glucose 25%, fructose 19%, sucrose 53%, lactose 3%). With or without tapioca milk tea, 85% of sugar intakes came from beverages. Even by limiting tapioca milk tea, the subjects took the same sugar amount from other beverages, suggesting that an established sugar intake level is hard to change. J. Med. Invest. 65:43-49, February, 2018.
Keywords: Taiwan; food habit; sugar intake; tapioca milk tea.