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Sugar and other sweeteners, how much are we getting?
Americans
are living the sweet life and suffering from its effects.
The average American consumes at least 64 pounds of cane
or beet sugar per year, and the average teenage boy at least
109 pounds. Per capita consumption of added sugars has risen
by 28 percent just since 1983. The USDA projects that if
this consumption trend continues, intake of added sugars
will increase almost 20% between 1996 and 2005. Counting
the dextrose and high-fructose corn syrup that are added
to soft drinks and prepared foods, Americans consume an
average of 156 pounds of refined sugars per year.
What
does it do to our health?
Sugar is a simple, highly refined carbohydrate. It is refined
from sugar cane or sugar beets. All the other nutrients
that normally occur in the whole food are stripped out.
Therefore, sugar doesn't have the nutrients that normally
occur in fruits or other naturally sweet vegetables. In
nature, carbohydrates are packaged with vitamins and minerals.
These vitamins and minerals are needed to process and utilize
the carbohydrates. When you eat a refined carbohydrate such
as sugar, your body will consume stored nutrients to process
the sugar. This can make you deficient in those nutrients,
leading to many diseases. Eating the "empty calories" of
sugar also replaces more nutritious foods in the diet, leading
to further deficiency diseases. Since these sweeteners make
up 16% of the average diet, the remaining foods have to
provide 100 percent of the vitamins and minerals to make
up for these empty calories. Sugars and other sweets also
cause the body to release insulin. Your body uses insulin
to prevent blood sugar levels from rising too high. This
is normal. If your body did not produce insulin, you would
suffer the ill effects of high blood sugar that are seen
in diabetes, namely; peripheral neuropathy (numbness and/or
burning in the hands and feet, blindness, heart disease,
high blood pressure, stroke, susceptibility to infections,
and gangrene). To prevent these ill effects, your body uses
insulin to drive sugar out of the blood stream and into
the cells. This slows fat burning, leading to obesity, diabetes,
and heart disease.
* Obesity -- Between 1976-1980 and 1988-1994, overweight
rates in teenage boys rose from 5 percent to 12 percent,
in teenage girls from 7 percent to 11 percent, and in
adults from 25 percent to 35 percent.
* Diabetes -- Approximately 5.9 percent of Americans have
diabetes; that's 15.7 million people with another 798,000
new cases each year. The incidence increases with age.
In persons age 65 and older, 18.4 percent suffer from
diabetes. It is the seventh leading cause of death in
the United States
.* Heart disease -- Heart disease is the leading cause
of death, accounting for 41 percent of all deaths in the
United States.
If
I don't add sugar to my food, where does it come from?
A great deal is found in soft drinks, fast food, desserts,
and packaged foods. Sugar is added to everything from cigarettes
to hamburgers, to toothpaste, because marketers have found
that people like the sweet taste. Click here to see the
amounts of added sugar in common foods. SugarInFoods
What
about sugar substitutes?
Artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar. Your body still
produces insulin in response to the sweet taste, but there
is no sugar to drive into the cells. In addition to feeling
the effects of low blood sugar (weakness, fatigue, dizziness,
irritability), fat is conserved and obesity remains. During
the years of "low fat", "no sugar" food marketing,
obesity rates in this country have shot up (see above) because
people believe they can eat more of these low calorie snacks.
Furthermore, the chemicals that make artificial sweeteners
have their own health risks.
Aspartame
(Equal, NutraSweet) - The following information is taken
from an online article that may be referenced below: Aspartame
is, by far, the most dangerous substance on the market that
is added to foods. Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent
of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Many of these reactions
are very serious including seizures and death as recently
disclosed in a February 1994 Department of Health and Human
Services report.(1) A few of the 90 different documented
symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame
include: Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea,
numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression,
fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems,
hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties,
anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus,
vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.(1) According to researchers
and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame,
the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened
by ingesting of aspartame:(2) Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis,
epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome and Parkinson's disease.
Free methanol is created from aspartame when it is heated
to above 86 fahrenheit (30 centigrade). This would occur
when aspartame-containing product is improperly stored or
when it is heated (e.g., as part of a "food" product such
as Jello). Methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde
in the body. Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin. An EPA
assessment of methanol states that methanol "is considered
a cumulative poison due to the low rate of excretion once
it is absorbed. In the body, methanol is oxidized to formaldehyde
and formic acid; both of these metabolites are toxic." The
recommend a limit of consumption of 7.8 mg per day. A one-liter
(approximately one quart) aspartame-sweetened beverage contains
about 56 mg of methanol. Heavy users of aspartame-containing
products consume as much as 250 mg of methanol daily, or
32 times the EPA limit."(2) For more information on aspartame,
click here Aspartame
Saccharin (Sweet 'N' Low) - may cause bladder cancer.
Acesulphame-K (Sweet & Safe, Sweet One, Sunette)
- may cause cancer and may also cause disorders of the thyroid
gland. For more information on food additives, click here.
Are there any natural alternatives? Stevia is an extract
of a leaf that is extremely sweet for the amount of calories
it provides. Though it has been safely used in South America
for hundreds of years, and constitutes 40 percent of the
sweetener sold in Japan, it is difficult to obtain in the
United States because of the FDA's apparently protectionist
attitude. Stevia is sweeter, cheaper, and far safer than
artificial sweeteners. The FDA has ruled it an unapproved
food additive despite its meeting the requirements for GRAS
(Generally Recognized As Safe) status. This seems to be
the result of it being a non-patentable competitor to aspartame.
Maple syrup, molasses, stevia, barley malt, rice syrup,
or honey can be substituted for refined sugar in many recipes.
For information on recipes and conversion of recipes to
natural sweeteners that still contain some food value, click
here. Meanwhile, reduce the sugar in your diet. You are
sweet enough without it.
REFERENCES
(1) Department of Health and Human Services, Report on All
Adverse Reactions in the Adverse Reaction Monitoring System,
(February 25 and 28, 1994).
(2) Woodrow C. Monte, Ph.D., R.D., "Aspartame: Methanol
and the Public Health," Journal of Applied Nutrition, 36
(1): 42-53.
Feel
free to email us at: office@drwells.net
or call us at (818) 788-4220
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