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Health See other Health Articles Title: Dangers of excesive sugar consumption Dr. Robert H. Lustig is a professor of clinical paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco Centre for Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment. Dr. Lustig led the latest research on the dangers of eating too much sugar. He has stated: "We are now seeing the toxic consequences of eating excessive amounts of sugar. There has to be some sort of societal intervention. We cannot do it on our own because sugar is addictive. Personal intervention is necessary, but not sufficient." Dr. Lustig and his fellow researchers say that sugar is a poison and selling it should be as tightly regulated as cigarettes and alcohol. In an article entitled The Toxic Truth About Sugar, published in the journal Nature, the researchers warn that sugary foods and drinks are responsible for illnesses including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and liver problems... contributing to 35 million deaths a year worldwide. My first thought when I read this report was... about time, I have been saying this for years! Kids get hooked on sugar from an early age. so the study recommends using taxation to double the price of fizzy drinks, restricting their sale to those over 17 or 18, and tightening regulations covering school vending machines and snack bars. Sugar is big business. As expected, sugar industry groups like the US Sugar Association were quick to respond with their usual baloney. When asked to comment on the latest research findings. Prof Charles Baker, chief scientific officer of the Sugar Association, unsurprisingly said: "When the full body of science is evaluated during a major review, experts continue to conclude that sugar intake is not a causative factor in any disease, including obesity." There's no escaping it, sugar is literally everywhere and it is addictive. Trying to find food that contains little or no sugar on a supermarket shelf is not only near-impossible, but when you do get it, you have to pay a premium for it. So not only is sugar regulation necessary but people's choices must actually be increased by making foods that aren't loaded with sugar easier and cheaper to find. Currently, the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for sugar is 120 grams for men and 90 grams for women. Personally, I feel the RDA should be near zero because Sugar is nutritionally empty. However, this allowance is very easy to exceed even for those who believe they're making so-called healthy choices. For example, a loaf of bread contains 3.5 grams of sugar, an Innocent smoothie 10.5 grams, Special K red berry breakfast cereal 23 grams and a Starbuck's skinny muffin 43.6 grams, to mention but a few foods that many may consider to be healthier options. In his article, Dr Lustig writes that excess sugar in the diet does not just add calories, but has been linked to numerous health problems, which occur even in people who are a normal weight. According to Lustig, too much sugar can cause: * High blood pressure (fructose raises uric acid, which raises blood pressure) * Diabetes * Increase in the blood fats triglycerides) * Obesity * Liver problems He concludes that sugar has the potential to be abused and like tobacco and alcohol, can lead to addiction. Lustig is talking about added sugars and not naturally occurring sugars in foods like fruit or milk. He defines added sugar as ''any sweetener containing the molecule fructose that is added to food in processing." Sugar consumption has tripled in the past 50 years and it's probably no coincidence that obesity rates have shot up over this same period too. If Dr. Lustig's commentary is not a wake-up call to policy makers and regulators, I don't know what would be. It's safe to say it's time to turn our attention to sugar in the battle against obesity, diabetes and heart disease despite the uphill battle we're facing against sugar lobbyists. A good first step for anyone trying to reduce their sugar intake is to cut back on, or better still, cut out sugary drinks... and on a much higher level of intervention, governments around the world should consider taxing foods high in sugar, in addition to providing subsidies for fruit and vegetables, in order to promote healthier diets. I wish you good health, Ben Ong Please visit my website for more information Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 5.
#4. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
I wonder how much that means to the average guy on the street. Am I the only one that measures sugar in teaspoons, tablespoons and cups, and had to look it up? 120 grams of sugar = approx 24-28 teaspoons
Thanks for the conversion. I was dismissed from a jury pool when I asked the prosecutor how many grams were in an ounce, or vice versa.
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