SWEET FAT
Is there a relationship between the hugely higher modern levels of sugar consumption, and
the wave of obesity that has swept over the developed world and is now reaching the poorer
countries? WHO thinks so. |
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CHOCO.COLA.CANDY.SAUCE.CEREAL.SOUP.OBESITY. |
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Today almost everything has sugar inside it.
It’s bad for our teeth, we keep telling ourselves, but scientists are discovering how
too much sugar can damage almost every part of the body. Till recently it was thought that
if sugar consisted of 30 per cent of your diet, it was fine. Then the American National
Academy of Sciences brought this figure down to 25 per cent. And everybody seemed OK with
that.
But now, there is a storm brewing. A panel of
experts appointed by The World Health Organisation (WHO) has found that it isn’t safe
to consume no more than 10 per cent of sugar in our diet. The powerful sugar lobby,
alarmed at it’s profits crashing, has rubbished the WHO and threatened to move US
Congress and stop funding to the WHO.
America’s Sugar Association—which includes sugar cane and corn farmers, and
industry giants Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and General Foods— or ‘Big Sugar’ are
trying to block the WHO report: Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases
report. They have threatened to lobby US Congress to cut off the $406 million it
sanctions annually to the WHO, and is about one-fourth of it’s budget. They are also
trying to armtwist developing countries to back them. Many are already indirectly backing
the US sugar lobby.Sugar Association president
Andrew Briscoe said in an April 14 letter to the WHO's director-general Gro Brundtl,
"We will exercise every avenue available to expose the dubious nature of the
report."
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a
non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, DC that tracks money in
politics and its effect on elections and public policy, last year the sugar industry
donated more than $3 million to American federal elections.
Also, Congress maintains a sugar-support program that
guarantees domestic sugar producers a minimum price by restricting sugar imports and
buying and storing excess production, as it does with other farm programs. According to
the General Accounting Office (GAO), the program costs Americans $2 billion annually in
inflated sugar prices, and storing excess sugar will cost another $2 billion over 10
years.
(Health Freedom Nutrition) |
More Than Just Cavities
But first, why this restriction and exactly how harmful is sugar to the body? For one,
whenever you eat sweets, you get a sugar rush and blood glucose levels rise rapidly. So
the pancreas secretes a large amount of insulin to keep glucose levels down. This large
insulin response makes blood sugar fall to levels that are too low 3 to 5 hours after the
sweets have been eaten. Now, the body doesn’t like this much fluctuation.
Secondly, sugars are just "naked calories", that is they are packed with
energy, but they have no nutrients. No fiber, no minerals, no proteins, no fats, no
enzymes. So the body has to borrow vital nutrients from healthy cells to metabolise the
incomplete food. Calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium are taken from various parts of
the body to make use of the sugar. That also severely harms the body.
Sugar makes us fat?
In fact, this issue is at the centre of the whole global sugar debate. Last year, the WHO
report on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases said that people
could reduce their risk of obesity, diabetes and some heart problems by curbing sugar
consumption.
Now how does that work? Excess sugar is stored in the liver in the form of glucose
(glycogen). Since the liver's capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar above
the required amount of makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to
maximum, excess glycogen returns to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken
to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks,
the breasts and the thighs.
Once these are completely filled, fatty acids invade active organs like the heart and
kidneys. These begin to slow down; finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat.
This can lead to obesity, diabetes and even certain cardiovascular diseases.
Eat less sugar,
right?
No, it’s not as simple as that. Today, almost everything you eat has sugar inside it.
From soups to sauces to frozen meat. Some breakfast cereals for children are as much as
50% sugar! In America a flue-cured tobacco was found to have 20% sugar by weight.
Indians had better take note. 25 percent of males and 36 percent of females above the
age of 20 years in India are overweight. Our country has always had great sugar surplus (a
closing balance of 109 lakh tonnes of sugar at the beginning of the 2002-03 season, enough
for seven months). In the era of liberalisation, consumption of soft drinks, fast food and
processed foods are on the rise. As we get richer, we also are getting fatter — and
unhealthier.
Most of the sugar is consumed invisibly in the form of fast foods and soft drinks.
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