Sugar, sweet suicide—part I

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July, 2003 by Gary Null

With only 16 calories per teaspoon, what's the harm in a little sugar? Problem is, we can't get enough of the stuff. In a world where soft drinks and processed foods have become dietary staples in lieu of fresh fruit and vegetables, fiber-rich grains, and pure water, people are swallowing an average of 4l teaspoons (or 201 grams) of sugar daily, 31 teaspoons more than the maximum amount recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Over time, that adds up to a whopping 162 pounds per person per year. And when you consider that part of the population eats far less or no sugar at all -- diabetics or babies, for instance -- that figure further soars. Thanks to their love affair with soft drinks, many children are at the higher end of this scale, consuming an additional 21 teaspoons of sugar daily. (1)

Sugar's pervasiveness is a relatively new phenomenon. Decades before food-processing techniques revamped the modern diet, people didn't eat a lot of sweets. Wholesome, home-cooked fare was the norm and no one heard of fast food chains or packaged meals. Since the post World War II era, the amount of sugar added to what we eat and drink has steadily grown to the point of now being found in practically every store-bought food. According to the 2000 USDA Economic Research Service: "The per capita consumption of caloric sweeteners increased by 28 pounds, or 22%, from 1970 through 1995...and continues to increase." From 1985 to the present, sugar production and consumption has risen by almost two percent a year. (2)

The problem of too much sugar in our foods is compounded by the national trend of "value sizing" -- offering more food for the dollar. Serving sizes have grown, not just in fast food establishments, but in most restaurants, and even at home, according to a new large-scale study of the super-size phenomenon. Soft drinks have increased in size by 52%, snacks by 60%, and hamburgers by 23%. Of the 60,000 Americans studied, everyone served more food adjusted to the bigger amount without even noticing that their portion sizes had grown. The only clue: their waistlines were expanding.

With soft drinks and table sugar being two of the top four carbohydrate sources for Americans, it appears that most of us are in the dark about sugar's dangers. This remains true despite attempts by alarmed public interest groups to increase general awareness of how much sugar we are eating through food labeling and the US Surgeon General's call for sweeping change. "Unfortunately, our society is experiencing the results of the sugar industry's rather successful advertising campaign to promote the healthy and natural aspects of sugar," says Ron Lord in a 1998 Agricultural Outlook Forum article. "Sugar at one time had a rather negative public image, if I remember the 1970's correctly," he explains. Then in the 1980's, public attention became focused on fat as something to avoid; and about the same time a rather successful advertising campaign to promote the healthy and natural aspects of sugar was conducted. The result: gains to carbohydrates, and sugar in particular." (3) In short, we are being manipulated by the sugar industry and paying a dear price for it. Our sugar-saturated diets cause rampant obesity, premature aging, and life-threatening diseases in adults and children.

Sugar Addiction

In the 1960's, the Frito Lay corporation advertised its corn chips with the slogan, "Bet you can't eat just one." Anyone who has ever eaten a snack food knows how true this is. Even dieters find their best intentions to give up "junk" thwarted by intense cravings. That need for a food, the initial comfort in eating it, and the low mood that inevitably follows, is a sign of addiction.

Still we continually fool ourselves into believing that we can control our cravings if only we put our minds to it. We understand that certain drugs can be addictive, but we do not think food can have the same stronghold on us. We judge overweight people as lazy and think they either don't care about themselves or don't try hard enough. And when we give in to a craving, we blame ourselves for lacking will power.

In reality, a sugar craving can be physically overpowering. In The Hidden Addiction: And How to Get Free, addictions expert Janice Keller Phelps writes, "A non-addictive person will often eat some 'sugar food' and after eating a reasonable portion... will feel satisfied for a prolonged period....In contrast, the addictive person finds that something else happens. Feeling hungry, he or she eats a reasonable portion of sugar food, but immediately wants more. The physiological hunger is not quieted and continues to signal for more for some time. Some such people will proceed on a veritable sugar binge, gorging on sugar or simple carbohydrates even when they know it is going to make them feel terrible." (4)

Sugar's addictive nature is the reason why food manufacturers place it in their products. They know that by doing so, we will buy their merchandise again and again. Even if you are avoiding the obvious offenders, candy and cakes, for instance, you may be getting too much. Surprisingly, salad dressings, catsup, and non-dairy creamers often contain more sugar than a cup of ice cream or a chocolate bar. Companies fool us with their "all natural" labels or ingredient lists that categorize sugar types. Consider a label that reads "wheat, vegetable oil, dextrose, corn syrup solids, and malt powder"; the last three ingredients are pure sugar. It is listed this way to keep sugar out of the spotlight, even though its rightful place is as the first ingredient.