the bitter truth
The quick answer: Sugary drinks, with either real or artificial sugars, are a leading cause of chronic disease and premature death. Pure water is the healthiest drink and a big step towards simplifying your life.
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Allied With Angels
The 20th century was a dietary disaster. Food had remained essentially unchanged through the six millennia of recorded history. Then, in one century, the industrial revolution reinvented what God had created. We call what resulted the modern American diet (MAD). MAD caused the rise of chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.). The food reformation’s goal is to recover the goodness of natural food, taking advantage of modern methods, and prevent chronic disease.
If you read this blog, benefit from the Healthy Changes, and invite your friends and neighbors to join—you are a soldier in the food reformation. In this battle, you’re on the side of the angels.
Seven Deadly Trends
The industrialization of food can be seen in seven trends. We’ll visit these trends in the coming weeks. Trend #1 is the growth of sugar from an occasional treat to the main source of calories in the modern diet.
In the early 1800s sugar was a rare treat; most sweeteners were natural, local, and seasonal—honey in the summer, maple syrup in the winter. You couldn’t overdose on honey; first, because the bees made a fixed amount, and second, because honey is less addictive than sugar. The experts estimate sugar consumption from all sources (honey, maple syrup, molasses, and refined sugar) in that time at 10 lbs. per year, or a couple of teaspoons daily.
Our sugar consumption today, based on USDA data, exceeds 100 pounds annually. This is a ten-fold increase from the early 1800s, and five times what the AHA recommends (6 tsp daily for women; 9 for men). If your sugar intake is average, you get about 25% of your calories from some form of sugar. There’s something terribly wrong when refined sugar is the leading source of calories.
Two Heroes
John Yudkin, PhD, MD (1910-1995), was the first to connect sugar to the modern diseases. In the ‘50s he studied the link between sugar, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease. (If we had followed Yudkin we wouldn’t have wasted a generation trying to solve heart disease by reducing cholesterol.) Yudkin wrote a famous book, published 1972 in England as Pure, White and Deadly, and in the U.S. as Sweet and Dangerous, that remains a classic. Dr. Yudkins is a nutrition hero.
Robert Lustig, PhD, is a UCSF professor and obesity researcher who warns about the danger of refined sugar, especially fructose. For an explanation, see his YouTube video, Sugar: The Bitter Truth. Talking about the fructose naturally present in fruits, Dr. Lustig closes with a comment I never expected to hear from a UC professor: “When God makes a poison (meaning fructose) He wraps it in the antidote.” Skip the soda drinks; eat apples.
Good Calories, Bad Calories
The essential dietary change is to slash sugar intake to below the AHA goal of 6 tsp (25 grams) daily for women and 9 tsp for men. For the average American, this is an 80% reduction! Your blood sugar and insulin levels will decline as you do this, excess fat will slowly disappear, and real food (fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts) will begin to taste better. (Natural food has a hard time competing with food that’s more like candy.)
Gary Taubes wrote a detailed book on the health problems linked to America’s excessive sugar intake. The book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, carefully examines the role of sugar in overweight and obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, infertility, and aging. It’s a scary book. If you need motivation to curtail your sugar intake you should read it or others, such as:
- Suicide by Sugar by Nancy Appleton.
- Sugar Nation, The Hidden Truth Behind America’s Deadliest Habit and the Simple Way to Beat it, by Jeff O’Connell
- The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now!, by Dr. Mark Hyman.
- Sugar Blues, by William Duffy.
Sugary Drinks
Soft drinks are the #1 source of sugar for most of us, so this should be the first place to cut back. There’s a hidden secret behind the limit of one 12 oz. soda per week—it’s hard at first but over time you’ll lose the taste and begin to skip weeks. At some point you may say, "My addiction is cured; I can live without sugary factory drinks."
Non-sugar Sugar?
Artificially sweetened drinks are defined as sugary so also come under this rule. Do you buy diet drinks in the mistaken belief it’s healthier than regular soda? Society made a foolish mistake when we assumed that food scientists could invent a new molecule that would be intensely sweet but not have the ill effects of sugar. The bitter truth is artificial sweeteners seem to reinforce the infantile sugar craving in an addictive way, while adding new problems. See this post for more on the dangers of sugar substitutes.
What to Drink?
When banning an unhealthy product, our policy is to offer a healthy replacement. So what to drink? Water! Drink lots of water. There is no healthier drink that water! (We use a Brita charcoal filter on our water.) Eight glasses daily is a common recommendation. Here’s a good test of your water intake: Fill a pitcher with eight cups of water and drink from it for one day. Measure what’s left at the end of the day. You’ll find it’s hard to drink the recommended eight glasses but you’ll do better with this pitcher method because of the daily feedback.
Occasionally we get bored and seek variety, something besides water. A drink flavored with real fruit, even a slice of lime or lemon, makes a nice change. One flavored drink a day seems enough for our family. Green smoothies are good too.
Please comment on your experience cutting back on sugar drinks, including artificially sweetened diet drinks.
Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change reminder card. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 12:44PM | by Skip Hellewell | 22 Comments | 18 References | Share Article | in drinks, healthy change | Email Article
Reader Comments (22)
Hello! I looooooove your blog! I'm actually overweight, but the tips you include always seem so achievable it has helped me become more healthy.
I do really well with not drinking soda and sticking to water, but I LOOOOOOVE trader joe's fruit juice. Is there a difference health-wise between juice and soda?
This is one of my favorite Healthy Changes because it is so easy! We have served water with most meals since we were newlyweds and it was the most affordable drink available. Now, a houseful of kids later, we still drink the same way and our kids actually prefer it because it's what they are used to. They still get an occasional soda or whatnot at a friend's house, and that's okay.
I did used to serve juice with breakfast every morning and stopped doing so a few years back when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. We still drink orange juice on occasion but rarely - and no one seems to have noticed or cared when I stopped serving it regularly.
I rarely drink soda--probably less than a dozen times in a year. We drink water (and green smoothies). However, I know I get way to much sugar from cookies, chocolate, etc. That is something I will work on. Right now I am just trying to focus on getting more whole grains in the diet. I just bought some buckwheat, spelt flour, french green lentils, and red quinoa to try. Should be fun! One step at a time.
There was a time in my teen years that I drank soda regularly. Then I moved to a dry climate and was always so thirsty that I switched to water. I only drink it on occasion now. When I married, my husband drank Coke all the time. I felt it was such a waste of money, on top of being unhealthy. I eventually talked him into drinking more water. He tried it and realized how much better he felt. He still loves soda, but drinks it only occasionally now.
Eileen, you've got it right—one step at a time is manageable. Each quarter we add a 2nd step to the major improvements, like sugar reduction. So in 13 weeks we'll return to sugar. But here's an early peek at the rule: Don't bring a bag or box of candy into the home. Enjoy your treats a piece at a time.
Annie, generally, fruit juice (though typically made from processed concentrate) is better than soda drinks (full of sugar, HFCS, artificial flavors and phosphoric acid.). But for your main fluid intake, make it water. Also, distinguish between pure fruit juices and the fruit-flavored drinks that are usually sugared. For the best fruit drinks, make your own.
Soda isn't hard for me. Its other sweets. Rather than trying to eliminate or cut back in frequency I'm now focusing on portion control and eating sweets I really love rather than mindlessly snacking on sweets I don't even like that much. It sounds common sense but it really is do easy to mindlessly consume mediocre cookies at a church party for example. I'd rather save my sweets intake for something amazing like homemade apple crisp
Thanks for the reading list. I'm totally addicted to sugar.
You have good well-researched information.
I'll be spreading the healthy message to all my friends. The tides are turning. It's time for the voice of the people to overturn the cronies of politicians and barons of the food industry. You know the food chain is broken when a salad costs more than quarter pounder.
Anna, we agree—home made apple crisp is delish. Just eating treats we make ourselves will cut down on the volume, and likely improve the quality.
I am so inspired by your blog. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into helping your readers make healthy changes. I printed out the Healthy Change #1 card and put it on the fridge this morning. I am not a water drinking fan but I have been drinking water all day long due to the reminder. I look forward to changing a step at a time to a healthier lifestyle. Thank you again for all you do and please know you're going to help change my life by your example. I am truly grateful.
Your original first post help me cut daily cokes out of my diet. I had done it in the past, but had returned to the habit. You're original post gave me the motivation (and the good reason) to cut it out. I still struggle sometimes. At lunch and dinner I often want "something different" than the water I drink the rest of the day. I found that the cokes were way, way to syrup-y tasting after I cut them out, so if I would have some at lunch it would be a quarter, if that. But, it can sneak up on you slowly, so I went with some of the carbonated fruit water drinks. Anyway, it's easy to let the "something different" drinks inch into the amount of water I'm drinking. So, I LOVE your idea about the pitcher of water so I can easily see the days when I'm letting other drinks prevent me from getting the water I need. I also found when I started drinking more water that I was extremely thirsty. It's like my body was craving those daily 8 glasses and got super excited when I started drinking more. So, yet again, thanks for the motivation, Skip!!
I think one of the main reasons for the increase in sugar intake is that it's now in so many products that didn't contain any sugar in the past. The main culprits are things like breakfast cereals, breads, pasta sauces and crackers. So even if you avoid an obvious food like soda, you can still be unintentionally eating sugar. I find that when I avoid these products, I don't fee like I need as much sugar added to things like my cup of coffee or my oatmeal for them to taste sweet.
Susan, thanks for reminding how ubiquitous sugar is. In three weeks the Healthy Change will deal with the issue of sugary breakfast cereals. As we return to the level of sugar used by our great-grandparents, we learn to enjoy the real food flavors. Best to you.
Luckily I've never been a soda drinker, I already drink almost nothing but water. The exception for me is when I'm biking I bring a sport drink along. I bike my 8 mile commute several times a week and water can't deliver the quick energy boost mid-ride that a sport drink can. I don't drink much of it while I ride, only a few swigs, maybe 3 or 4 oz. I would prefer to stop and eat a banana or something mid-ride, but it's not practical when I'm trying to make it to work in a timely manner, and especially not in sub-freezing winter temperatures! Once I've finished my ride I leave the sport drink with the bike and grab the water bottle. (In my time abroad I gained an appreciation for coconut water as a natural energy boost, but I can hardly justify spending $2-3 for 11oz of coconut water when I used to spend 25 cents for a whole coconut with 4-5 times as much juice)
Tom, when I lived in Central America i enjoyed fresh coconut juice too, but took it rather for granted.
Thinking about energy drinks, in high school, after being cut from the basketball team, I ran cross country just to win a varsity letter. During races I would carry a lemon (half in each hand) and squeeze lemon juice into my mouth when needed. It always amazed me how sweet the juice was, how it cleansed the mouth, and gave energy. Best to you.
Skip! I truly love your blog! I was wondering, you said in the first section "If your sugar intake is average, you get over 5% of your calories from some form of sugar. There’s something terribly wrong when refined sugar is the leading source of calories." ... Was that a typo? Was it supposed to say "you get over 50% of your calories"? Because otherwise I don't understand why it would be considered the leading source of calories. Please don't misunderstand, I think it's bad and am currently doing a 'sugar cleanse' after the holidays with a sugar-free January! (I do allow myself honey).
Hi Mame. Glad you love the blog. You have a good eye for numbers. I said all forms of sugar added up to 5% of daily calories, but a closer answer is 25%. Excuse, while I eat some humble pie.
The sugar calculation goes like this: Per the USDA, the average American consumes about two pounds a week. This translates to 32 level tsps per day! A tsp (4 grams) is about 16 calories. So the 32 daily tsp is about 500 calories, or about 25% of our daily calorie intake (based on 2000 daily calories for women).
So yes, refined sugar in the various forms, including HFCS, is our leading calorie source. The AHA recommends cutting sugar about 80%, or a maximum of 6 tsp daily for women or 9 for men. One caveat, the woman who faithfully reads this blog is an above average woman and likely eats much less sugar.
Soda has never been a big problem for me, and artificial sweeteners have been even less a problem. I drink about 2 liters per year of regular soda. Maybe. On the rare occasion I have some, I drink a few swallows and I'm done. Since this healthy choice is such an easy one for our family, I've tweaked it a little bit. Our goal is one dessert per week. I've actually been working on my sugar intake for several years, and got my breakfast cereal sugar down to almost none. Now I put 1 tablespoon honey on my oats and I'm good.
I stopped drinking soda over a year ago. It is amazing how sweet it tastes to me now. Even worse is the acidic burn I can feel as it travels down to my stomach. There are other things just as bad as the sugar in these drinks. My drink of choice is water and I still like unsweetened iced tea. Skip, is there a particular brand of tea I should be using?
Christie I haven't made a study of the herbal teas. The beautiful wife has her favorites, but that's based more on taste. Perhaps our readers have a suggestion. Best.
Ann, your minimal use of sugar is an example all can follow. There is life after sugar.