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Short essays the health problems attributed to sugar consumption
Harmful effects of excess sugar essay
Harmful effects of excess sugar essay
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Imagine this, it is the 1800’s and you’re shopping for sugar. You see the sweet, pure white sugar and look down. Wham! The price makes your stomach drop. You need a cup of sugar, and the price is five dollars per teaspoon. That’s two-hundred and forty dollars, and you only have two dollars with you! In the articles, How Candy Conquered America by Lauren Tarshis and This Cupcake is Trying to Hurt You by Kristin Lewis and Lauren Tarshis it talks about how the consumption of sugar changes over time from the 1800’s to today. Two ways sugar consumption in the United States differed in the 1800’s than today is how much sugar we eat and how it affects our bodies. One thing contrasted in the articles, This Cupcake is Trying to Hurt You and How Candy Conquered America is the amount of sugary foods and sugar we consume. In This Cupcake Is Trying to Hurt You, the authors state that, “In 1801, the average American was eating roughly 8 pounds of sugar a year. Today, the average American eats about 130 pounds a year, according to some estimates.” This means we are eating one-hundred and twenty pounds more than in 1801. To put that into more context, an adult woman is only supposed to eat six teaspoons of sugar a day. That 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
What might be the biggest contribution to what drove sugar trade is consumer demand. Many popular drinks weren’t sweet and sugar was used as a sweetener. According to Sydney Mintz’s sweetness and power, “sugar as sweetener came to the force in connection with three other exotic imports tea,coffee, and chocolate(4)” because tea, coffee and chocolate
Kit-kats, Hershey bars, Skittles, and Jolly Ranchers. The reason these sweets, and many other products, are so popular is because of their sugar content. It’s hard to imagine that something used in nearly every food today was practically nonexistent at one point. But this is true- sugar wasn’t introduced globally until the 1500’s. Following this introduction, the trade that sprung up would come to be one of the most successful and profitable in the world. The Sugar Trade’s success was driven by many factors. Out of those several factors, the ones that promised success were high consumer demand, willing investors with a lot of capital, and the usage of slave labor.
Soechtig uses factual data and statistics to further prove the argument of the increasing rate in poor diet among most Americans. The data used puts into view of how large an issue American’s have on their hands. She provides an example of how much damage one drink can have on your body. She expresses that one soda increases the risk of obesity by 20% (Soechtig, 2014). By using this statistic, Soechtig demonstrates the impact sugar has on one’s health. The statistic challenges the people in the audience who believe the idea that “one won’t hurt.” The director is not criticizing those who drink soda, but does hope to encourage and persuade them to make a switch. Even right now, over half of the American
Discuss the Relationship between sugar and slavery in the Early Modern Period. "No commodity on the face of the Earth has been wrested from the soil or the seas, from the skies or the bowels of the earth with such misery and human blood as sugar" ... (Anon) Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated a complex process of cultural change altering the lives of all those it has touched, both the people who grew the commodity and those for whom it was grown.
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
With all the sugar plantations in the New World there was now a plethora of sugar to go around. Sugar, usually a commodity only for the rich, was now “...so cheap that the common people could afford it” (Doc. 4). Humans are predisposed to crave sweetness, unlike salty, sour, and mixed tastes, which one must learn to like (Doc. 4). That is why from the 1600s to the 1800s sugar drove the economy, and consequently the Industrial Age (Doc. 4). This change in the abundance or sugar, and thereby its price affects us even today. Food would have an entirely different taste if sugar was an expensive luxury eaten
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 is one of the most consumed commodities in the world today, and the profits of it are significant. According to Larry Schwartz (2014) “Americans consume 130 pounds of sugar every year” (Schwartz, 2014). We must be acknowledged about how it all started, to appreciate how people lived and how they struggled to provide such a commodity. Sugar was a profitable commodity in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. The cultivation of sugarcane expanded to the United States of America, which brought enslaves from Africa to work on the plantation of sugar during the 17th century. Sugar was known as the white gold for its income, which helped the U.S. to achieve independence from Great Britain. Although sugar has the worst history, it is widely used for nutritional, medical and industrial productions, and sugar manufacturing led to an industrial development and economic growth.
This paper will explore the culturally adaptive, yet physically maladaptive, changes in American diet from early to late twentieth century. A shift from traditional to convenience foods coincides with the general modernization of the United States, specifically in the role of women in the home and in the workforce. As America changes from a rural nation to one that is urban and industrialized, with rapidly increasing technology, more and more women are seen in the workforce. This increased activity allows less time for preparing meals, and modernization makes spending this time unnecessary. However, increased accessibility of food, and especially convenience food, leaves...
In Document 5, there is a picture of a graph that tells over the years 1700-1770 the amount of sugar consumed has grown rapidly. This means again the more sugar is being made the more people are rapidly buying this sugar. The british population has grew, same with sugar imports and how much people consume. from the years 1700-1770 the annual per capita consumption has gone up by 3.52 pounds every 10 years.
Back in the 1800’s people didn’t eat sugar as much because it was expensive and hard to get. Look at page 24 of the article, “Suddenly you didn’t have to be rich to afford a rope of tangy red licorice or mouthwatering buttercream.” Before Oliver Chases discovery, candy was made by hand, so, it was made in small quantities. In the 1800’s, candy was popular in Europe but expensive in America. However, all this changed when Chase started selling his lozenge-making machine across the US. Suddenly, candy could be made faster and in larger amounts. Over the years, steam powered candy machines were invented, making sugar even more common. Companies started selling more and more candy, gaining more and more
Probably some of the most pleasurable and enjoyable memories of a person has to do with sweets. When thinking back to birthdays, there is always the memory of the wonderful cake that mother beautifully made and decorated with frosting and glazes. A typical night out with dad can be transformed into a magical evening with a trip to the ice cream parlor. The end of a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner turns heavenly when a hot apple pie is brought to the table and topped with delicious, melting vanilla ice cream. A good wedding is never complete without the cutting of the splendid multi-level wedding cake, when the happy new couple gets to playfully shove and smear cake and white frosting into each other’s smiling faces. Everyone knows that as a child, the only good part about going to the dentist is getting the candy bar at the end of the visit. Why do some people get sick after eating too much suger? Some people do not even know that the abuse of sugar can lead to negative effects on your body. There is something strangely enjoyable and resplendent about the consumption of sugar. Why is it that sugar is so deliciously enjoyable and at the same time a food product that has many negative affects on people’s health?
2. Obesity dramatically increased in the 70’s due to a number of factors. After World War 2, lawmakers, big business and labor leaders, along with many ordinary Americans put mass consumption at the center of their plans for a successful post-war nation. The availability of frozen dinners and a variety and surplus of different foods skyrocketed. In 1977, the US dietary guidelines changed drastically, promoting our diets as mainly carbohydrate based. Over the years, the sizes of certain foods and our portions have blown up. Twenty years ago, an average bagel was 3 inches in diameter and only 140 calories. Today, the size of the average bagel has doubled, now 6 inches in diameter and over 350 calories. The health problems that stem from being overweight go way beyond the ones we usually hear about, like diabetes and heart disease. Being overweight can also affect a person's joints, breathing, sleep, mood, and energy levels. In the U.S. 68.5% of adults are overweight or obese, 34.9% falling under the obese category and 31.8% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese with 16.9% being obese (Overweight and Obesity in the U.S.). Figuratively and literarily, the obesity rate is a growing problem. The total economic cost of overweight and obese persons in the United States and Canada caused by medical costs, excess mortality and disability is approximately $300 billion per year. $80 billion of this portion is due to overweight, and approximately $220 billion is due to obesity. Approximately 90 percent of the total $300 billon comes from the United States. The Trust for America's Healt...
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.
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