Americans are addicted to sugar. Unfortunately, many other countries have also adopted our ‘American’ diet. The University of California gives us some very eye-opening facts about why we need to get off the habit as quickly as possible if we want to enjoy a life that is disease-free and energetic, and not abruptly cut short by diseases like Diabetes caused by obesity and high sugar intake.
Debunking the lies about sugar can be quite a task since most large food manufacturers put the stuff in a myriad of forms in almost every food we purchase at the grocery store – notwithstanding vegetables and fruits, which each have traces of sugar of their own.
Obesity indicators are off the chart, and have been for years. Most American weigh at least 25 pounds more today than we did 25 years ago, and it isn’t just because we’ve aged. While there is a genetic component to obesity, the issue is largely driven by environmental changes over the pat 30 years. As has often been taught is that what we eat and don’t burn, we store. So are Americans just gluttonous, slothful people? Not really – all the countries which have adopted our ‘American’ diet are also suffering from obesity. Australians, Japanese, and others even have casino online greater numbers of obese children, just like Americans do.
The problem is both how much we are eating and what we are eating. The maximum allowable amount of sugar to maintain any modicum of health is about 8 teaspoons of sugar in one day, but Americans are consuming nearly 30 teaspoons each day. Did you know, for example, that this amount of sugar is in one bottle of ‘Vitamin Water,’ the erroneously named ‘health’ drink which delivers more crystallized fructose than any bio-available vitamins. One bottle or can of Coca-Cola, the popular beverage made by a company who is against GMO-labeling, also contains almost ten times the daily recommended maximum.
Through our various food choices, we consume an average of 18 to 26 extra tablespoons of sugar each day than we really should. Sugar is sometimes almost 20% of the calories we consume. It is easy to do a little math and imagine what will happen to our waistlines if we eliminate just some of that extra sugar, but there are even more important ramifications for our health than the appeal of looking great in a pair of skinny jeans. These include avoiding diabetes, chronic immune disorders, roller-coastering glucose levels, and the warp-speed aging that accompanies eating too much sugar too.
Everyone should realize that sugar is a health destroyer. The substance is a primary fuel for cancer, and ingestion too much of it increases the risk of countless other diseases. One study has even found that when mice ate a diet of 25% added sugar, in addition to an otherwise normal and healthy lifestyle, the females died at twice the normal rate and the males were less likely to hold territory and successfully reproduce. In other words, even the “safe” levels of sugar weren’t safe.
