The bitter truth about sugar and its impact on our health

Last year, the WHO took a very bold step by urging people to limit their sugar intake to no more than 5% of their total calories per day. This is a very sharp decline, because, for example, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, the average American gets about 16% of calories from sugar. In order to better represent the sugar in food, they plan to change food labels to reflect the actual amount of sugar added during the manufacturing process.

The sugar situation is exacerbated by the fact that food and beverage corporations deliberately target consumers through all sorts of advertising campaigns and try to hide or minimize real health risks.

Yes it is harmful

Initially, the culprit was considered a more profitable substitute for regular sugar in soda and other products - high fructose syrup. Due to differences in chemical composition, absorption in the case of it is faster. However, more accurate and long-term studies, the results of which are now available, show that any sugar, even from sugar cane, is dangerous.

At first, sugar was considered one of the causes of obesity, diabetes, and an additional risk factor for cancer. Sugar is now seen as an independent risk factor for a variety of cardiovascular and chronic diseases, including cirrhosis of the liver and dementia

published this spring in the Journal of the American Heart Association Internal Medicine, found that people who consume more than a quarter of their calories a day from sugar have twice the risk of dying from one of the comorbidities than those who consume less sugar in their diet. 10% of total calories. However, gender, age, physical activity level and body mass index do not matter. Excessive sugar consumption kills everyone in the same way.

Excess sugar makes us not only fat, but also sick. Sugar also affects mental health, causing an increased risk of depression.

Stronger than cocaine

Even more alarming is the growing evidence of sugar addiction. It's one thing when you just stop using a harmful product and do not feel discomfort. But if addiction is involved, then it really becomes uncomfortable.

Since human experimentation is discouraged, the rats had to uncover the essence of sugar. Its consumption is indeed addictive, stimulating the pleasure-producing areas of the brain. It is interesting that sugar in the course of the experiments affected these centers.

Nancy Appleton, Ph. D. and author of Suicide By Sugar: A Startling Look at Our # 1 National Addiction, calls the key problem exactly that while our mind says "I don't want this," our body says "I need it." … And manufacturers, in turn, are in no hurry to warn how wide the range of products containing sugar is.

More than 70% of Americans consume more than 22 teaspoons of sugar daily, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. It sounds inconceivable, but it is worth counting the sugar in all the food that an inattentive person eats a day (including that seemingly not very sweet yogurt, sweet and sour sauce for a lunch side dish, a couple more cookies and sweets for a snack and a glass of sweet tea), how everything falls into place.

If you adhere to the WHO recommendation at the beginning of the article "no more than 5% of calories for sugar per day", then such a person will have to keep within six teaspoons (at a rate of 2,000 kcal per day).

Not fitness for the sake of

The trickiest sugar-containing product is drinks, including soda. We are not even talking about those huge two-liter bottles that are sold in supermarkets and lure with a lower price in relation to volume, or those huge glasses of cola that can now be ordered in fast food restaurants.

The manufacturer is trying to create in our head the idea that if the drink is "sports", then it is necessarily useful, well, or at least not harmful. This is how all sorts of fitness bottles with liquids appeared, which kind of should be drunk before or during training. However, do not rush to buy this miracle, because there is the same sugar and there is still salt (only there is no gas).

Fabio Comana, a professor at the University of San Diego and a spokesman for the US National Academy of Sports Medicine, does not consider it necessary to consume sugar before training:

If you're heading to the gym and your workout is 60 minutes or less, then you don't need the extra sugar and these fitness drinks. All you need during your workouts is water. Your food will give you the rest.

An exception would be athletes whose workouts are at least 90 minutes long and very intense.

Beware of counterfeits

We are, of course, talking about sweeteners. While they seem like a lifesaver for those who can't live without soda but don't want to get fat, Diet Coke and the like can be harmful in the long run. show that diet soda also contributes to obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. Sweeteners trick our receptors into thinking we’ve got real sugar, even though they didn’t. As a result, metabolism is seriously destabilized.

Another extremely important point regarding the choice of products is the ability to recognize sugar in the composition. Even if advertising and packaging assure you that this is an absolutely healthy and useful product, the reality may be completely opposite. Look at the carbohydrate content. If there are a lot of them, then you are actually going to consume extra calories without any nutritional benefit to the body.

Every time it comes to nutrition, food corporations inevitably fall into the topic.

It will take a long time for companies to create something that people enjoy as much as sugar. They know sugar is addictive and people will come for more.

Unfortunately, huge advertising budgets allow them to create any illusion in the eyes of consumers. These companies benefit from producing food that works like a drug.