NMES consumption patterns within the population In the last 50 years patterns of eating have changed radically across the world. The types of foods and drinks consumed and the ways in which food is eaten have all changed. This has been caused by a wide range of social, economic, and political changes in society and in particular, the process of globalization and the mar- keting activities of the international food and drink companies. Globalization has had an enormous impact on sugars consumption across low-, middle-, and high- income countries. In low-income countries, consump- tion of sugars has steadily increased in recent decades as international food and drink companies develop and expand their global markets (Drewnowski and Popkin 1997). In middle-, and high-income countries, overall levels of sugars consumption has not changed signifi- cantly but the pattern of consumption has altered. In the UK, following the cessation of war-time rationing, there was a massive increase in the consumption of sugars in the 1950s (Figure 11.2). Since this peak in total consumption in the 1950s/1960s there has been ad gradual reduction in the amount of NMES con- sumed. However, the pattern of consumption of NMES has changed greatly in the last 30 years. There has