The liver converts the excessive fructose into fat after using up the needed amount of carbohydrates from sugar and the excessive fat is stored in liver, body cells, and pushed out into the blood, which causes a fatty or dysfunctional liver, obesity and related diseases, and high blood pressure along with cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke (Cohen; Goldwert). Generally, dietary fat has been believed to be the culprit for causing obesity. In the 1980s, scientists blamed dietary fat in food as the major reason for obesity and cardiovascular disease (Syed & Davidson). So food companies started to eliminate fats from food and to compensate for its cardboard-like taste, they started to put in more sugar, mostly in form of cheap High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), which became the food industry’s savior. But for 30 years with less fat, cases of obesity and diabetes have only increased in number.It is not just because people eat more sugar through processed/fast foods, but also HFCS convolutes the body signal system by never informing brain to stop eating. It suppresses the hormone Leptin, which sends a signal to the brain “full,” so people eat more than they need and it results in prevalent abnormal obesity (Bray). Even more sad news from nephrologist Richard Johnson is, sugar rush depletes body energy and makes it harder for people to move, holding true to the term, couch potato (Cohen).
Regarding cardiovascular disease, high sugared blood hurts the blood vessels and it makes it easy for the dangerous LDL cholesterol to invade and cause plaque that leads to heart attacks or strokes (Lund University). Also, a recent finding from the University of California-Davis reports that LDL cholesterol, the byproduct of excessiv...
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...iction”). People would rather choose sweet stuff right now, than be aware and cautious for their future health. Also its downsides show up slowly or sneakily, it makes it hard to blame sugar directly and people are easily misled. Food companies spend a lot of money on lobbying to keep the facts under wraps (Syed & Davidson). Moreover, they make food packages deceptive ; Sugar can be disguised by more than 50 different names: HFCS, molasses, corn syrup, dextrose…(Pikul) Also processed food such as pasta sauce has 12g of sugar per half-cup (“Best Pasta”). Yes, it is almost impossible to escape sugar; 77% of packaged foods contain sugar (Lustig, “The Sugar-Addiction”). But people do not know the facts well. Americans’ average sugar consumption is 22 teaspoons per day, while The American Heart Association suggests only 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men (“Sugar 101”).
According to the article, Too Much Can Make Us Sick (http://www.sugarscience.org/too-much-can-make-us-sick/), “Heart disease. Diabetes. These chronic conditions are among the leading causes of death worldwide. Increasingly, scientists are focusing on a common set of underlying metabolic issues that raise people's risk for chronic disease. It turns out that the long-term overconsumption of added sugars is linked to many of these dysfunctions.” This means that people living today, have a lot more trouble with diseases because of our unhealthy sugar intake compared to the
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
High fructose corn syrup was first created in the 1970s by the Japanese as a form of sweetener. Combining 45% glucose and 55% fructose it was the sweetest substance yet and its cheap production, longer shelf-life, and versatility helped it over the next three decades emerge as the dominant sweetener on the market. However, despite its success, it has most recently been noted that effects of the substance are extremely detrimental to consumers, and its increased use directly correlates to the rise in obesity and diabetes among Americans.
Obesity in America has risen dramatically in the last forty years. Many believe high fructose corn syrup is to blame for this and other health related issues like diabetes and high blood pressure. High fructose corn syrup was invented by Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi in 1957 (Production of high fructose corn syrup). Scientists have done tests and many reports and found many statistics showing the same thing: once high fructose corn syrup (or HFCS) was added to food and beverages in 1975, obesity rose without warning. The U.S. has the highest obesity rate in the world: “roughly two-thirds of adults and one-third of young people in the U.S. are now overweight or obese” (McMillen). That’s a massive amount, and it’s growing at a steady pace with little sign of ending any time soon. We also eat more mass produced food than any other country in the world. High fructose corn syrup has taken over the food market and has found its way to almost all of our food and drinks.
Sugar consumption in the U.S. has increased by 19 percent since 1970. Americans consume around 30 teaspoons of added sugar per day that’s about a half of a cup! When the A.H.A. (American Heart Association) only recommends about six teaspoons daily, that’s pretty horrific. How is it that we Americans are so used to consuming more than we need? Is it the fact that we are oblivious to what we are consuming, or in all reality, are we just addicted to sugar?
Walking down the streets of the United States, it seems impossible to avoid the sight of a major problem that is growing at extreme and fatal rates. This problem is known as obesity, which can lead to many other health problems such as diabetes and high cholesterol. One of the many causes for this is an unbalanced diet filled with foods high in fat and sugar. When given the choice, it is safe to say that many would be quick to grab a chocolate bar over a chai kale smoothie when hunger strikes. Many food companies have tried to follow the trend of the love of sweet foods by adding a fatal ingredient to their products. This ingredient is sugar.
The Sugar Busters diet claims that sugars, such as refined sugar and sugar processed by the body-starches and complex carbohydrates, are toxic to the body. The Sugar Busters diet operates under the belief that only a certain amount of insulin is necessary for survival, and too much will have a negative impact on the body. The intent of the Sugar Busters diet is to lower cholesterol level, obtain weight loss, increase energy, and improve the body’s health; the diet achieves this by eliminating food high in sugar from the diet. Sugar is eliminated from the diet because it stimulates excess insulin to be produced by the body, which increases cholesterol level and allows the body to store fat. By controlling the insulin, the body can use stored
As one of the main external causes of obesity and overweight, the level of sugar within the body is based on the amount of sugar concentration within the body’s bloodstream. Sugar concentration found within the body is usually attained from the consumption of food, such as sweets, fruits, bread, pasta and grain. The sugar from the food consumption is broken down by the body in order to give energy for the body which allows it to function. The energy broken down from the sugar is used to help the body to carry on with daily functions such as moving or thinking.
Your heart is also affected by sugar. Consuming sugar causes your body to produce insulin to counteract the sugar. More insulin in the bloodstream can damage your arteries. The walls of the arteries grow faster than normal and become more rigid or tense. This causes more stress to your heart which damages it over time. Eventually this can lead to heart attacks or strokes. People who eat greater than the recommended daily amount of sugar are twice as likely to die from heart
...rate of obesity increased But this isn’t the only thing that it causes. In a book called, “Process-induced Food Toxicants” by Wiley Hoboken , he tells us that High fructose also causes Heart disease, cancer, dementia, liver failure, tooth decay
What causes obesity is the fact that we as a nation are eating high calorie foods, and combined with poor exercise habits causes an overweight person. For example a regular bottle of coke contains roughly 65g. of sugar in every bottle(the 20 FL. Ounce). This is equivalent to 16.9 tea spoons of sugar a day, and let’s not forgets the carbohydrates(A teaspoon of sugar). As we know “carbs” for short, is the most common form of energy that the body uses for its daily needs. When carbs are eaten the body turns them into glycogen. Glycogen is stored inside the muscles and liver for energy when needed. When too much carbs enter the body and overfill the stores of already present glycogen, the body then turns excessive carbs into fat, and stored on the body. This is one of many contributors to excessive we...
We are all familiar with sugar. It is sweet, delicious, and addictive; yet only a few of us know that it is deadly. When it comes to sugar, it seems like most people are in the mind frame knowing that it could be bad for our health, but only a few are really taking the moderate amounts. In fact, as a whole population, each and everyone of us are still eating about 500 extra calories per day from sugar. Yes, that seems like an exaggerated number judging from the tiny sweet crystals we sprinkle on our coffee, but it is not. Sugar is not only present in the form of sweets and flavourings, it is hidden in all the processed foods we eat. We have heard about the dangers of eating too much fat or salt, but we know very little about the harmful effects of consuming too much sugar. There still isn’t any warnings about sugar on our food labels, nor has there been any broadcasts on the serious damages it could do to our health. It has come to my concern during my research that few
HFCS is being used for almost every food product in the food industry. However, if we look at HFCS from a limited point of view we just see it as something present in our food and not the health factors behind it. HFCS can be habit forming since it is a sweet replacement for sugar and in his article Peretti mentions that David Kessler said “sugar, through its metabolisation by the gut and hence the brain, is extremely addictive, just like cigarettes or alcohol.” People enjoy the taste and because of this they consume large quantities, which lead to health factors such as: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, infertility, liver problems, and so on. Our limited perspective may cause us to lose sight of how much of a risk HFCS possess. In my case I use to think that my family gained significant amount of weight only through fatty foods and...
You are out for a quiet lunch with your family, the waitress walks over and your 6 year old child asks for a lemonade with their lunch. Sure, you think one glass of soft drink won’t hurt right? Wrong. That one, seemingly innocent glass of lemonade contains a whopping 6 teaspoons of sugar. I doubt that you would let your child eat 6 teaspoons of sugar from a bowl, so why would you allow them to consume it in the form of a sugary soft drink? Sugar is highly addictive, can cause cancer and is causing childhood obesity. The proliferation of sugar in society is causing widespread problems like obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancers, tooth decay and acid wear. Additionally, Rethink Sugary Drink claims that one can of soft drink a day can lead to an annual
When a person gains weight, they think the main cause is the fat that is included in the food they eat. They are terribly mistaken. According to the video Hungry for Change, they say, “ In the 1900’s, an average person only consumed about 15g of sugar a day. But in the present, modern adults consumes 70-80g of sugar a day, and teens consumes about 120-150g”. Sugar is not only a unhealthy diet and obesity, but it is the main cause of overweight. Sugar does not contain fat, but when people eat more calories than they burn, the remaining calories stays as fat. By being overweight, it can impact a person’s entire quality of life. In the physical health, the right kind of food gives you the strength and energy to make it through in your everyday lifestyle. In other words, by eating the wrong kind of foods, you won't get the energy you need in your life. In the mental/emotional health, a little stress is good for your body because it gives ...