Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on the effects of sugar
Essay on how sugar effects the body
Essays on the effects of sugar
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essays on the effects of sugar
“Sweet!” People use the word as a replacement for awesome as much as they love sweet things. Indeed, sweetness is the first taste a newborn baby recognizes, and it is crucial for living; it gives energy and is important as the sole energy source of the brain (Sigelman & Rider 184). While people have heard that sugar can be dangerous, it seems they do not much care about it. In fact, it is not widely known how bad it is or the consequences, yet people can access sugar products very easily. In a cultural context, sweet things are usually used as a reward or a gift; there are even candy holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Easter and Halloween. But most of all, America is surrounded by processed and fast foods that contain enormous quantities of sugar. People may claim that they are fine because they do not have a sweet tooth. But the truth is that there are so many hidden sources of sugar that people can’t be free from it. The excessive sugar intake that causes physical, mental, and social problems is underestimated and people should be aware of its hidden danger.
Physical problems from excessive sugar involve a wide range of symptoms from tooth decay or nutritional imbalance to serious diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular related diseases, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, inflammation, suppressing immune system, Alzheimer’s, and cancer, etc. In fact, three undesirable things are happening once sugar is inside the body: it is broken down abnormally fast, produces potential harmful substances, and depletes body nutritional resources.
In its natural state, sugar exists as a part of whole organism like sugar cane, and it is digested and nurtures the body in a normal way, like other foods. But refined sugar is nothing b...
... middle of paper ...
...sting. CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Taubes, Gary and Cristin Kearns Couzens. "Big Sugar's Sweet Little Lies." Mother Jones.
Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress, Nov-Dec, 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. .
Walker, Steven C.S.T. "Sugar Research - Heath Science." Sugar Research - Heath Science. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. .
Willett, W. C. "Is Dietary Fat a Major Determinant of Body Fat?" The American Society for
Clinical Nutrition 67.3 (1998): 556s-62s. Print.
Corporate Author. “Nutrition Label of name of product.” City, State of Manufacture. Year.
For example:
Kraftfoods. “Nutrition Label of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.” Banbury, UK.
The food that we as a nation consumes reflects the health and well being of the American people. We have become so accustomed to fast food and easy, unhealthy, diet choices that diseases like diabetes has become very prevalent and on the rise. One in every three Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes. In the film “Food Inc.” takes a look into a typical grocery store and reveals the illusion of variety. Most of the food in the industry leads back to corn. High fructose corn syrup, a sweetener made from corn starch, is found in many of the foods and beverages that we consume. High fructose corn syrup has been linked to metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes. Corn has become very affordable and abundant and big food
However, the outcome was different from his desired result due to strong protest from the dairy and livestock industry, so the Congress instead urged people to buy lean meat and less fat food so the dairy and livestock industry do not go out of business. This created the fat-free boom in the market in the 1980s. However, food companies began to put more sugar in their products because the taste was bad when they reduced fat in the food. Now, the sugar intake of Americans has doubled compared with before. In the American market, there are approximately 600,000 different food products, and 80% of those include sugar. Although sugar is written in various forms and names, one suggests that it’s bad in any form, especially if taken too much. Sugar consumed naturally through fiber-rich fruit or vegetable should be fine, but the added sweeteners stimulate the hormones that increase insulin. High insulin prevents people from thinking they are full, and thus crave more food. This causes many diseases. Of course one meal high in sugar will not kill them, but the problem is that people generally exceed daily sugar intake in one meal alone when consuming process food. We eat more processed and convenient food instead of fruits, vegetables, and
Anything that is used to replace regular sugar, or sucrose, can be considered an artificial sweetener or sugar. Americans are increasingly using artificial sugar. “Fake sugar” is toxic, not just to the body, but to the metabolism as well. Artificial sweeteners were designed to be sugar substitutes as a less fattening alternative because seventy five percent of the population is overweight in United States. These are in the brand names that most people recognize such as Splenda, Sweet One, Equal, Sweet 'N Low, and many more. These artificial sweeteners are all synthetically made in labs and can legally be labeled as 'natural' because it appears somewhere on the Earth, despite it being made in a lab. The reason people use artificial sweeteners in their food is because these products do not add calories to the food. Dieters and people who are aggressively trying to lose weight see this as a golden opportunity to eat something that is just as sweet, but does not contain the calories. Likewise, artificial sweeteners do not need to be used in huge quantities to sweeten something. In fact, it takes much less than regular sugar to sweeten the same product. Perhaps this seems way too good to be true. This would then lead us to investigate the following question: How do artificial sugars affect our body?
(Main Point 3) After a long period of time, high blood sugar levels can have a serious effect on all the body's organs.
According to the USDA, at the start of century 21st American people have increased their daily caloric intake by consuming five hundred calories more than in 1970. As cited by Whitney & Rolfes (2011), there are many recognized causes of obesity such as genetics, environment, culture, socioeconomic, and metabolism among others; but the cause most evident is that food intake is higher than the calories burned in physical activity. Excess of energy from food is stored in the body as fat causing an increase of weight. During the course of the last 40 years, obesity has grown enormously in the United States and the rates remain on the rise (pgs. 272-273).
A. The normal physiological response to increased takes of sugar is that too much of it will cause the unnecessary amount to be left in our body causing fat buildup. It will also cause hyperactivity.
For years doctors have been saying that refined sugars are empty calories and consist of absolutely no vitamins or minerals that people need to survive. Dentists warn that sugary foods encourage tooth decay. Many people avoid sweet food because it can lead to obesity, heart problems, diabetes and cancer. These negative responses by people’s bodies are actually warnings. Maybe people eat sugar for other reasons than the sweet taste. The human body's negative responses to sugar may be a similar purpose to the reason kids feel pain when they are playing too roughly. People’s consumption of sweet foods might also serve as a sign of defiance against their bodies’ health limitations. What many people do not realize is that their tasty treats can affect their mind and emotions.
With such an obsession with sweet foods, there is an obvious desire for an explanation of how such a once unknown substance took center stage on everybody's snack, dessert, and candy list. That's where Sidney W. Mintz comes into play. He decided to write this book Sweetness and Power, and from the looks of all the sources he used to substantiate his ideas and data, it seems that he is not the first person to find the role that sugar plays in modern society important. By analyzing who Mintz's audience is meant to be, what goals he has in writing this book, what structure his book incorporates, what type, or types, of history he represents within the book, what kind of sources he uses, and what important information and conclusions he presents, we can come to better understand Mintz's views and research of the role of sugar in history, and how much it really affects our lives as we know them.
Metcalf, T., & Metcalf, G. (Eds.). (2008). Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Obesity. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage Learning
Although many individuals are uncertain about the increasing statistics associated with obesity, more than seventy percent of men and virtually sixty-two percent of women within the United States adult population are overweight or obese (Wilmore, Costill, & Kenney). Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. If an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too excessive, he/she is at a much greater risk of developing life-altering diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, etc. (Wilmore, et al., 2008).
Obesity is a physiological condition characterised by an excessive accumulation of body fat, specifically the build-up of adipose tissue beneath the skin. In recent years, the number of people diagnosed with clinical obesity has increased dramatically, with governments desperately trying to tackle the obesity epidemic and its associated consequences (McLannahan and Clifton, 2008). Studies have found that the prevalence of obesity once stood at an estimated 9.8% (Kelly, Yang, Chen, Reynolds & He, 2008), a considerable figure representing almost 400 million individuals worldwide. Even though obesity has now been recognised as a major problem the number of people affected is increasing rapidly, with almost 300,000 deaths attributable to obesity in the USA each year (Allison, Fontaine, Manson, Stevens, & VanItallie, 1999). Excessive amounts of fat can prove dangerous as the condition has a very high comorbidity rate with other long term health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and cancer (Pi-Sunyer, 1993). Numerous examples of media, medical journals and educational literature concerning obesity refer to the condition as a disease, with an increasing use of the word ‘Epidemic’ to describe the somewhat recent surge of obesity cases in western societies (Boero, 2007), however there is little material available that offers evidence for obesity meeting specification for disease. Instead it has been proposed that obesity is alternatively a risk factor for developing other potentially harmful diseases, influenced by a variety of other factors i.e. genetics, cultural ideals and biological impairments.
still plays its role and still make the world spin. It gives people a lot of energy; it gives us joy and happiness. But in this world, everything has its consequence. After the joy and after the happiness comes diabetes, tooth decay, excess body fat. It’s really hard to believe that something so sweet can produce that kind of damage. So how did sugar became such an important commodity in our community and the rest of the world?
In the article “U.S. health advocates seek safe sugar limits for drinks” By Lisa Baertlein reports “Americans, on average, consume 18 to 23 teaspoons of added sugars each day, according to data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.” (Baertlein par. 8) It’s no surprise our country has a sweet tooth, you can tell because everything we consume has some sort of sugar in it or an artificial sweetener, which in most cases is worse. The typical American is consuming dangerous amounts of sugar at a costly price. Many deal with diseases such as diabetes, which has a direct correlation to sugar and the trouble, your body has breaking down the carbs with
...k out of their home (Center n.d.). Modernization and development has left our working class people scrapping by to provide food for their families. To “solve” this, and increase their profits, corporations are now controlling the people’s nutritional needs. Since the development of the first sugar plantation businesses have been pumping sugar into our veins. We graciously accept this form of cheap nutrition because industrialization has left us inadequately prepared for survival in the fast paced consumer world. Simon Capewell, a professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Liverpool sums up the issue with sugar in modern time by saying, “Sugar is the new tobacco. Everywhere, sugary drinks and junk foods are now pressed on unsuspecting parents and children by a cynical industry focused on profit not health.” (NHS Choices: Your Health, Your Choices 2014).
Sugar is found in a lot of foods these days. It is found naturally in fruits. It is added to a lot of processed foods. The high levels of sugar in American diets is definitely linked to increased risks for obesity and Type 2 diabetes. But, is all sugar bad and how much is too much?