Augmented-Sugar Intake: A Mobile Application to Teach Population about Sugar Sweetened Beverages

Mexico remains, as the second worldwide nation with 32% obese adults and 34% of Mexican school-aged children and more than 33% of Mexican teens are either overweight or obese. Sugar sweetened beverages in Mexico's are linked to the pandemics of obesity. Even though a national policy campaign that includes: substantial tax on sugar drinks, a front-of-package labeling system, banning sodas and regulation of unhealthy food in schools; population at large lacks of tools to understand ultra-processed beverages labeled data. This work introduces Augmented-Sugar Intake, an enhanced augmented reality mobile app as a teaching tool to inform about ultra-processed sugar sweetened beverages. Using the app an intervention was design with the objective to develop a critic thinking of sugar ingestion by children and adults. Results show that participants did not know how much sugar a single soda contains, how mobile augmented reality can aid in the struggle against obesity and how data interpretation provides informed consumption to users.