When I have researched sugar in the past, it has been difficult to find definitive research about sugar being a toxic substance. There are a few people writing about sugar's role in heart disease and cancer. But the vast majority of nutritionists and doctors just see sugar as an empty calorie. Sure you shouldn't eat it, but sugar as a poison? Is it detrimental even in small doses? Does it make us sick? How could it contribute to heart disease? Isn't that what saturated fat does?
Last week on Twitter I saw several people a-twittering about the below article. The article was written by Gary Taubes author of Good Calories Bad Calories which I am told is an amazing book. It is high on the list. I respect Taubes' authority as well as the NY Times to bring to the reader only items that are thoroughly researched. I encourage every reader to read this rather long article. Particularly read this article if you think that High-Fructose Corn Syrup is worse for you than sugar. My hope is that this article gets people talking about GIVING UP sugar, or at least drastically reducing consumption of sugar.
What do you think? Is sugar contributing to our national sickness?
Great article. I just stopped drinking juice and this article is making me feel even better about that. I also no longer spend the day craving a flavorful drink and I drink more water. Now to get my kids off the juice.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with parents who didn't believe that everything they fed their child had to be sweetened. I had to ask Santa for sugar-cereal (true story! I think Santa felt a little bad for me) and I only got one night of candy binging during Halloween. Sweets were a rare, hard earned treat and most nights my mom would bring out "dessert" which was fresh fruit. I still think calling fruit "dessert" is a crock, but I give her loads of credit for not producing a human being that needs sweet in everything. I won't ever completely give up sugar, or alcohol for that matter, but I limit them to occasional indulgences. Because both of them are essentially toxic to our bodies- but dang are they awesome. I think our bodies can take an occasional nutirtional beating, ala birthdays and weddings where we tend to indulge on both cake and booze, but most of the time we should be steering clear of these poisons. I do believe that the American public should at least be aware of the amount of sugar in most foods (like fat free or low fat yogurt that contains 25g per container but is treated like health food) and perhaps the collective mentality on sugar will shift. I hope that one day we see sugar as the "bad guy" the way we currently see fat and cholesterol.
ReplyDeletejust found your blog, through your comment on Fed up with School Lunches :) I read this article twice (that took a while lol), and it really made an impact with me. We eliminated hfcs from our kitchen last fall, but I still use a lot of cane sugar in cooking and baking. I'm going to really work on cutting back on our consumption of this. I even made a small change today by buying unsweetened almond milk, instead of regular-it has o sugar grams per serving, as opposed to 7 grams per serving. Small steps :)
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