Could overweight and sugar consumption be linked?So you have an overweight problem, join the world wide club. Carrying around too much fat has now become a global epidemic. Australia now wears the crown according to the latest statistics now closely followed by America. We are told one of the main reasons for being overweight is to do with lack of exercise. I find this rather strange because Australia is one of the top sporting countries in the world and is always up front in world sporting events. We have a climate that lends itself to sporting activities, masses of magnificent well populated beaches and yet we still wear one of the obesity crowns. Surely there must be something more to it than this. This problem is of fairly recent origin and has only started to attract attention in more recent times, so if its not a lack of exercise, it leaves the culprit surely in our diet. Let's look at what's been going on with our diet. For years we have been told to minimise our fat intake but the only result I see is a general increase in weight. I find it hard to believe the answer lies down that path. OK, so let's look at protein consumption. All the statistics I find, suggests there has been a steady decline in most meats, eggs etc, with the one exception of chicken, all the rest have declined, so therefore I don't think the poor old chicken is to blame. So what does this leave us with?. CARBOHYDRATES, OK, so let's look around in this area. We are led to believe the most common form of carbohydrates is probably grains. As far as I can discover bread consumption if anything is on the decline. But Aha! sugar, now there is a source of pure carbohydrates. Sugar consumption has been steadily increasing. Here is a report from a reliable source. According to the USDA the average American consumes 30 teaspoons of ADDED sugar each day, that's apart from that found in fruit and milk etc. Apart from the usual sugar which is sucrose and fructose we are now consuming huge amounts of straight fructose. All the latest data coming to light is telling us fructose is a major problem. Corn syrup which is fructose and which is cheap to produce is in fact sweeter than sugar and our diets are becoming loaded with it. Getting back to sugar, THE BODY CONVERTS SURPLUS SUGAR TO FAT and latest scientific research tells us we convert fructose to fat at an even faster rate than sugar. Of course we get sucrose from fruit which I don't believe is a significant problem because our fruit consumption is relatively low. But wait a minute, we are now consuming large amounts amount of refined corn syrup which is a chemically produced fructose. Is it any wonder we are getting fat. Other sugars commonly found in our foods are maltose and lactose. these are being found more and more because they are cheaper to produce. Hold it! hold it!. Doesn't the body need sugar for energy! DR. John Yudkin of Queens College, London states, "All human nutritional needs can be met in full without having to take a single spoonful of white or brown or raw sugar" I find it interesting, we seemed to survive quite well before the arrival of sugar refineries, when the only form of sweeteners available was honey and because of its scarcity, it was out of the reach of the man in the street. by the way being overweight wasn't a problem either. Thirty spoonfuls may sound like a lot of sugar in one day but look at the following. * A 12 ounce (340 mg) Pepsi contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. * A 2 ounce (50 mg) candy package contains 11 teaspoons of sugar. * 8 ounces ( 220 mg ) of lemonade has nearly 7 teaspoons of sugar. * 1 cup of Kelloggs frosted flakes contain more than 4 teaspoons of sugar. The average Australian and American consume over 150 pounds ( over 50 kilos) of sugar each year. In fact almost a quarter of the total calories we consume are sugar. Do you still wonder why we have an overweight problem?. THE BULK OF SURPLUS FAT ON OUR BODY IS COMPOSED OF SOME FORM OF SUGAR WE DIDN'T NEED, BUT WHICH WE USE TO SATISFY OUR TASTE BUDS. May I suggest, if you are interested in dealing with overweight, you look at some of the other great articles on this site. It is dedicated to enlightenment on our global epidemic of surplus fat and all its consequences.
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