There’s new opinion out that warns we may all in be worse danger than we think when we consume excess calories as Sugar. The author suggests that calorific sweeteners like Sugar, Corn Syrup, and related substances are contributing materially to the current Obesity and Type II Diabetes epidemics…
Where obesity leads, Type II Diabetes often follows… Costing Health Care systems billions!
Author Gary Taubes writes in The BMJ, that a clinical re-look may be needed at the association between Obesity and Diabetes and sweeteners, principally pain white Sugar and the processing industry’s darling, High Fructose Corn Syrup.
While indirect links have long been postulated between excess Sugar consumption and consumption of large amounts of processed foods containing large amounts of ‘simple’ Sugars, direct causative links have yet to be discovered. But Taubes says they are out there, waiting for the right research study to uncover them.
The evidence that sugar has harmful qualities independent of its ’empty’ calories is still ambiguous, says Taubes. “If it is true, though, it changes how we must communicate the dangers of sugar consumption.”
A huge global problem…
Official estimates say one in 11 people in the United States has diabetes; one in 16 in the UK – and latest estimates suggest that obesity and diabetes may now cost the US healthcare system as much as (US)$1bn a day. And that alone warrants a crash programme of research into Sugar and its little-known ‘non-calorie’ effects on the body.
Setting an upper limit to the amount of sugar that should be consumed in a healthy diet is a good start, “but we don’t know if the level recommended is safe for everyone,” he warns. “It could be that for people who have obesity or diabetes, or both, even a little is too much. And the ubiquity of sugar rich products may make it difficult for many people to maintain a healthy level of sugar consumption.”
The bottom line…
We still don’t know nearly enough about Sugar and its effects on the human body. And time is running out…
~ Maggie J.