By Dean L. Jones
Eating fat has been wrongfully convicted as the culprit for causing cardiovascular heart disease and the like, whereas the actual killer is processed sugar. For more than the second half of the 20th Century doctors and related health professionals brainwashed American eaters into thinking that fat causes heart attacks and raises cholesterol, and except for being a source of empty calories processed sugar is all right. The beginning of the 21st paints a completely different picture by the larger medical community that now reports how processed sugar causes heart attacks, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, dementia, and is even the leading cause of liver failure in America.
Unfortunately, there are governmental agencies too contemptuous to adjust to this important revelation, such as the U.S. Dietary Guidelines provide no limit for added sugar, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still lists processed sugar a substance “generally regarded as safe” (GRAS). This is how the processed sugar still gets away with murder because of its GRAS classification permits the food industry an unlimited amount of processed sugar it can add to packaged foods.
For example, the average serving of packaged tomato sauce has more processed sugar than a serving of packaged cookies, fruit yogurt has more sugar than a sugary-filled soda, and most packaged breakfast cereals are 75% sugar. It is worth repeating that since 2009, the American Heart Association has routinely recommended that our daily diet contain no more than 6 teaspoons or 100 calories a day of sugar for women and no more than 9 teaspoons or 150 calories a day for men.
Even though more than 70% of all Americans consume 10% of their daily calories from added sugars, all studies on eating processed sugar reveal that people with the highest sugar intake have a four-fold increase in their risk of heart attacks compared to those with the lowest intakes. Some studies show how the risk of a heart attack doubles if added sugar makes up just 20% of the daily calories.
The end result is that too much added sugar in anyone’s diet could significantly increase the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Added sugars are comprised of sugars and syrups that are added to packaged foodstuff and beverages. This includes, but is not limited to; sugar-sweetened beverages, grain-based desserts, fruit drinks, energy drinks, dairy desserts, candy, ready-to-eat cereals and yeast breads.
Are current day doctors and nutritionists getting something else wrong by telling us that a low-fat diet is the key to losing weight, managing cholesterol, and preventing health problems? More and more the deal is to eat the right fats to help protect our heart and support overall health. In fact, good fats, such as omega-3 fats are essential to physical and emotional health, so put into practice good eating habits and always live SugarAlert!
www.SugarAlert.com
Dean Jones is an Ethics Advocate, Southland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization), contributing his view on certain aspects of foodstuff.
