Sugar Is A Major Cause Of Obesity

If you can stay away from the sugar we find in ice cream, cookies, beverages and even in yogurt, bread and tomato sauce you will begin to win the battle of the bulge. Most Americans consumed an average of 120 pounds of sugar 30 years ago. In 1995 we were consuming sugar at the rate of 150 pound a year. I remember as a young man going to the A&P for my mother and purchasing 5 lb. bags of sugar. Then, with WWII, I remember dad telling us that we would not be able to get sugar. In many ways that was a blessing.

In the latter half of the 1960s a new form of sugar began to find its way into many of our food products. Twenty times as sweet as sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup became the choice of beverage, bread and cereal makers. Dentists recognized the increasing amount of cavities and the obesity problem began to grow and grow as high fructose corn syrup began to infiltrate almost every food we consumed. Even an 8 oz. container of most yogurt contains as many as 37 grams of sugar. The body turns HFCS into fat very readily. Whereas 30 years ago the average American consumed only 1 pound of this sweetener , now the typical annual intake is around 60 pounds. Large amounts of sugar are used in the making of wines. This I learned while watching my grandfather convert the grapes into his own homemade red wine.

Cavities are a minor problem compared to the health problems brought on by large intake of sugar. One problem is type 2 diabetes which occurs most often in overweight people. Eating a lot of sugar raises the triglycerides (a type of fat) in the blood as well as lowering the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good”) cholesterol and increasing the (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol. Both changes contribute to cardiovascular disease.

The United Nations is urging people to limit sugar consumption to 10% of total daily calories, based on a 2000 calorie intake. That’s less than the 25% of calories recommended by U.S. public health officials (at the urging of the sugar lobbyists).

Try to limit your intake of added sugar to 10% of your daily calories. (The natural sugar found in fruits and vegetables doesn’t count.) So if you usually take in 2000 calories a day, no more than 200 of them should come from added sugar. To meet your goal, keep an eye on the Nutrition Facts labels. Sugar, especially HFCS is everywhere. When cooking use much less sugar than the recipes call for. Sugar promotes acid in the system as another side effect and is the primary culprit in the surge in obesity in this country. I haven’t bought a 5 lb. bag of sugar in 20 years. Personally, I prefer fruits and vegetables for sweetness and when I go out to eat I order water with a couple of wedges of lemon and a packet of “Sweet & Low.” Watch the scale reflect your weight loss with just this adjustment to your Nutrition-Based-Regimen. All © Rights reserved Stan Kent 2004