February 20, 2003
PRESCRIPTIONS
By MICHAEL WALDHOLZ
Let's Ditch 'Added Sugar'
From Our Regular Diets
Whenever my kids down a can of soda, I wince. Maybe you should, too.
My reaction comes from research I've been doing on weight gain in America -- especially among children -- and its health effects, most notably as a leading cause of diabetes. Medical experts say the excess pounds Americans carry is an epidemic, and perhaps the greatest public-health hazard of the new century.
Two weeks ago the prestigious magazine Science devoted an entire section to obesity, focusing on the biological reasons why Americans are so fat. The prevailing insight is that overweight people are ensnared in a cycle that makes it hard to lose pounds or to keep them off when they diet.
Overweight people aren't necessarily will-power weaklings but are victims of a protective system that evolved when food wasn't as abundant as today. We are, science says, hard-wired to retain fat in order to survive.
Based on this, the common sense suggestion for losing weight is to burn just a few more calories than you consume every day, by cutting back on those cookies and taking a brisk, 45-minute walk. A gradual slimming over time that recalibrates the body's inborn scale to accept fewer calories has the best chance of producing weight-loss success.
Nutrition researchers agree. But they say this approach is thwarted because "added sugar" is often the largest single ingredient in packaged foods and commercial beverages. Which brings me to my sudden awakening to the insidious sway even a few calorie-packing gulps of soda a day have on our diet, our expanding paunches, and our future. Some weight-loss specialists are convinced that a major culprit for the obesity epidemic is the explosion of sugar in the foods we consume. It is compounded because, like me, most of us aren't aware of the amount being ingested or understand the effect it is having on our biology.
When the body gets sugar in high doses, either in a processed form added to foods or more naturally from fruits or even from carbohydrates, the amount that is not used right away by cells to generate energy is stored as fat. That's good for getting humans through lean times. But in America today, where food is so plentiful, much of the stockpiled fat isn't burned off by physical activity.
THE SWEETENING OF AMERICA
• U.S. sweetener consumption increased to 22 million tons in 1999, from 14.2 million in 1980
• High fructose corn syrup consumption quadrupled to 9.2 million tons from 1980 to 1999
• High fructose corn syrup production capacity grew to 11.4 million tonsÊ in 1999 from 7.8 million tons in 1994
• Annual per capita consumption of sweeteners increased by 28 pounds, or 22%, from 1970 to 1995
• Sugar and sweeteners represent 36% to 40% of a "steadily growing" U.S. per capita consumption of carbohydrates
Nowadays, soda and other sweetened foods contain an added sugar that some say has become alarmingly ubiquitous: high fructose corn syrup. A 12-ounce can of soda that is mostly water and fructose syrup contains the same calories as 10 teaspoons of sugar. Most of us would go nuts if we saw our kids eating that much at once.
When added up, the calories in the high-fructose corn syrup that sweetens soft drinks, candy and other packaged products can equal 30% or more of the 2,000 to 3,000 calories that should be allotted for daily consumption. With so many calories coming from sugar, American kids are fighting an uphill battle each day against fat accumulation. No wonder the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group, has named soda, aka "liquid candy," public-health enemy No. 1.
On top of it, some researchers say repeated exposures to high-fructose corn syrup may be especially dangerous. In a speech to the International Congress on Obesity last summer, George Bray, a recognized expert on weight gain, said high fructose corn syrup is a "ticking bomb" in our diet because it is more readily converted into fat than other sugars. Unlike other sugars, fructose doesn't trigger the release of insulin, which controls sugar consumption by telling the brain to send out a feeling of fullness.
"Nutrition science has been slow to see that high fructose corn syrup is especially sinister," says Michael Eades, a diet expert who has written several books indicting the high consumption of carbohydrates and added-sugar products.
Food companies counter that fructose, which is milled from corn, is no different than any sugar, such as beet or cane. They say sugar intake should be moderated and its calories offset with exercise.
What can parents do, faced with this onslaught of sugar? Dr. Eades and others provide one logical solution: Help kids feel full by giving them more of their daily calories in the form of vegetables, fruits, chicken, fish and even meat. "Sugar," Dr. Eades says," is far more sinister to our diet than the fat you get from meat."
One strategy is to simply cook more at home, nutritionists say, so as to steer clear of packaged, processed foods carrying all those sugar-generating calories and all that high-fructose corn syrup. Of course, for time-stressed parents this can be a tough recipe to follow. But Americans have shown an ability to change when faced with the facts about unhealthy living. As a nation, we're reducing cigarette smoking, controlling cholesterol and high blood pressure, and even flossing more. Now may be the time to take on sugar in the same way.
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