Toxic Sugar
The quick answer: Sugary drinks, whether real or imitation, are a leading cause of chronic disease and premature death. Pure water is the healthiest drink.
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Two Biggest Diet Problems
The two worst problems with the modern American diet are sugar (in excess) and trans fats (in any quantity). We’ll address trans fats next week; this post is about the 100 lbs of sugar consumed annually by Americans, much of which goes to our waist. No one puts that much sugar in their food, they don’t have to—sugar is the #1 additive in processed foods.
The most toxic source of sugar—whether sucrose (table sugar), corn syrup, or high fructose corn syrup—is soda drinks. So we start the year with Healthy Change #1: If you consume sodas or other sugary drinks, limit yourself to one (12 oz.) serving per week.
I’m not trying to destroy the Coca-Cola or PepsiCo companies—but if they don't offer healthy products they'll destroy themselves. One other thing: Healthy Change #1 includes the chemical substitutes used in diet drinks, which simply reinforce our sugar cravings.
Sugar History
Sugar in the early 1800s was a special occasion treat. Traditional sweeteners were natural, local, and seasonal: honey in the summer, maple sugar in the winter. The nation couldn’t overdose on honey—first, there wasn’t enough, and second, honey doesn’t have that effect.
When the Word of Wisdom was revealed in 1833, American consumption of sweeteners stood at 10 lbs per year—about 3 tsp a day. Now, depending on the data source, we eat 21-30 teaspoons daily. The AHA recommends no more than 6 tsp (24 grams) daily for women, 9 for men (based on their greater weight). The AHA guidance seems a wise goal.
In his 1925 book, Food, Health, Vitamins, the pioneer English biochemist, R. H. A. Plimmer made a foreboding but prophetic comment about sugar in America: “The Americans, with their love of candy, are the largest sugar eaters in the world. Incidentally, cancer and diabetes, two scourges of civilization, have increased proportionately to the sugar consumption.”
Few heeded Plimmer’s warning—our sugar intake continued to increase, as did the incidence of diabetes and cancer. Add to that list the illness that has since grown to be the #1 cause of death: heart disease.
Toxic Sugar
In the ‘70s Dr. John Yudkin of England warned of sugar’s toxicity in his book Pure, White and Deadly,” (published in the US as Sweet and Dangerous, now a collectors item). Yudkin made the link between our sugar intake and heart disease when so-called experts were wrongly blaming saturated fats.
The science establishment, committed to the Lipid Theory of heart disease, turned on Yudkin with a vengeance and it became politically incorrect to mention Yudkin or his work. Time has shown Yudkin to be right, lipids weren’t the big problem, but a generation was wasted.
Food Inc’s reduced-fat response to the Lipid Theory had worse consequences: Traditional saturated fats were replaced with hydrogenated vegetable oils containing transfats, and low-fat foods had extra sugar added to improve the taste. In this false move, we added both trans fats and sugar do our diet. We not only didn’t reduce heart disease, we increased the problem of overweight and diabetes.
Scary Sugar
The author today who has done the most to warn of our sugar addiction and correct the Lipid Theory error is Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories. Here are quotes, beginning with Taubes’ closing paragraph from Good Calories, Bad Calories:
“Sugar scares me . . . I’d like to eat it in moderation . . . but I don’t actually know what that means, and I’ve been reporting on this subject and studying it for more than a decade. If sugar just makes us fatter, that’s one thing. We start gaining weight, we eat less of it. But we are also talking about things we can’t see — fatty liver, insulin resistance and all that follows. Officially I’m not supposed to worry because the evidence isn’t conclusive, but I do.”
Dr. Craig Thompson (head of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in N.Y.): I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little as I possibly can.
Dr. Lewis Cantley (director of Harvard Medical Schools cancer center): Sugar scares me.
Please Comment: Share your best ways of protecting your family from the effects of our sugar addiction.
Saturday, January 5, 2013 at 2:06PM | by Skip Hellewell | 10 Comments | 15 References | Share Article | Email Article
Reader Comments (10)
Many companies are now using brown rice syrup to sweeten their products. Where does this fall on the health continuum as far as sugars are concerned?
Thanks for your input. I've recommended your blog to several people & enjoy your posts very much.
cari s
Thanks for the insight. I enjoy this blog! I don't drink sugary drinks, that's not an issue for me, but I really like candy and desserts. How does one break these cravings? I find that even after some workouts I want something really sweet. I know I feel a million times better when I'm not eating candy or desserts, but they are so tasty, satisfy cravings, and I like them. I know I shouldn't.
I've read that eating more leafy greens actually helps to reduce sugar cravings. I'm not sure how true this is. I have worked hard to increase our veggies and decrease our sugar intake, but the holidays pretty much ruined that for us. Now that we have overloaded on sugar for a few days we all seem to crave it constantly. This week, as the children will be returning to school and a schedule, I plan to change our diet a big and cut out all that extra sugar. I plan to fill them up with hearty vegetable soups as much as possible. I think the best thing I have done for cutting out sugar is stop buying cold cereal. We replaced cereal with green smoothies, and they beg me for them if I skip a day!
Hi Cari: Sugar comes in many forms, especially in processed foods but it's all the same stuff in the end. Because WOWL advocates eating real, home-cooked, these other forms shouldn't be much of a factor in the family diet.
Hi V: In 13 weeks we'll return to sugar with the rule to buy candy a piece at a time—never bring a bag or box of candy into the home. So enjoy your candy by the piece as a rare treat rather than a daily event. Sweet dessert should be a treat also, like something for Monday FHE or Sunday family dinner. There are lots of desserts, like my Apple-Bread Pudding. Recipe at http://wordofwisdomliving.squarespace.com/home/skips-apple-bread-pudding.html
Hi Laura: That's an interesting observation, that leafy greens reduce sugar craving. Sorry about your Holiday lapse but it's a new year now. One interesting fact about leafy greens and other salad materials is they have a zero glycemic index, meaning they don't stimulate insulin which reduces blood sugar and perhaps sets you up for sugar craving.
I cut out a lot of sugar for our family by serving unweetened applesauce as a pancake topping, rather than syrup or jam. I just heat it up and add cinnamon, we love it!
I am trying to figure out our family's sugar solution. We don't drink soda or juices, but we do have too many treats...
I am in the middle of reading the book Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Foods, Obesity, and Disease by Dr. Robert Lustig. It is a really great book so far. He talks about the Yudkin study and explains Leptin resistance, Insulin resistance among other things.
As the mother of the home, and being a little sugar addicted myself, I feel like I need to make a seismic change, but I admit that it is hard to do. Perhaps I'll implement the one-change/week idea in our home to make it a better environment over time.
Thanks for sharing this post.
I am ADDICTED to sugar. Just a little bit becomes a binge. So I, and a number of friends, have eliminated all added sugar, in any form, for the month of January. It's our new year no-sugar for January challenge. I'm hoping that once I get used to no sugar I won't want it as much. Still waiting for that to happen. I'm also trying to eat only real food...no white rice or white flour....thanks Skip for all the research you do and information you supply. It's great!
So far so good. I don't drink sugary drinks- only water. But I find my good habit a bit ironic. Many of my friends have to have their Diet Coke each day while I drink my water. The irony is that these friends are skinnier, happier, and more energetic. They bop around doing all kinds of things while I would prefer to take a nap. I struggle with how my kids perceive things. I tell them soda is not good for their bodies and that water is the best drink, but then they see the water drinker dragging and the soda drinkers full of energy on their "high". I wish my life made water look more appealing and worth it.
And I have a question about fruit. I read on one blog a lady was cutting way back on her fruit intake to reduce sugar. And here I am trying to serve more fruit at my house. What do you think?
not to but in, but Tiffany - you may be interested in the new robert lustig book. he talks a lot about sugar. While fruit has a lot of sugar, it also has a lot of fiber we need that fiber. So it is suggested that we eat it. Most likely, if we are eating a whole fruit (and not fruit juice - which is missing fiber), we won't eat too much sugar. The fiber will make us feel full, and will help keep us "regular."
As a person who has drastically reduced her sugar intake (and am so much happier because of it), I am fascinated by the 6-9 tsp recommendation. Does this include all sweeteners? (honey, white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, etc.) Does it include dried fruit, fresh fruit and fruit juices? Because as someone who eats foods almost exclusively made from scratch--so I know exactly how much of everything is in my food (and trying to tally up what my daily sugar intake (in the form of natural sugars like honey and maple syrup) might be in terms of tsp.--about 9-10 teaspoons daily?), I find it really hard to believe that people are ONLY eating 21-30 tsp of sugar a day (given how much hidden sugar is found in almost every single item.)