Impact on Public Health: Encouraging natural and healthy consumption 

 A fundamental part of PureCircle's mission is to encourage healthier diets around the world through the supply of natural ingredients to the global food and beverage industry.

The growing global epidemic of overweight and obesity – “globesity” – is taking over many parts of the world.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO):

• At least 1 billion adults globally are overweight and more than 300 million are obese.
• Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century with 42 million overweight children under the age of five worldwide.
• The obesity epidemic is not restricted to industrialized societies. It is estimated that over 115 million people suffer from obesity-related problems in developing countries.
• While overweight and obesity were once considered a high-income country problem, overweight and obesity are now on the rise in low-and middle-income countries.
• Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths.

With the fundamental cause of obesity and overweight being an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended, it is important to reduce the consumption of energy-dense foods that are high in added sugar but low in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

All-natural, no-calorie stevia is an easy, appealing way to manage calories and added sugars without sacrificing the joy of sweet.

PureCircle is a proud member of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a multiyear effort in the United States designed to help reduce obesity – especially childhood obesity – by 2015. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation promotes ways to help people achieve a healthy weight through energy balance and has kicked off a Together Counts™ program to inspire people across the United States to become more active and healthy together.

PureCircle, with its high purity stevia products, is uniquely positioned to significantly reduce calories in a wide range of foods and beverages. Together with our customers, PureCircle is helping reduce calories as recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

By helping our customers reformulate existing products and bring new lower-calorie products to market, PureCircle has already helped to remove billions of calories from the global diet. This figure is indicative of stevia’s potential to help policymakers, manufacturers and consumers address the obesity epidemic by providing natural options to control sugar and calorie levels without scarifying taste.

^{Sources: World Health Organization, Datamonitor}