Our sugar addiction is killing us!
February 04 2014
Americans consume too much sugar, and our collective sweet tooth is killing us.
So says a study published Monday by the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. It finds that 71.4% of U.S. adults get more than the recommended 10% of their daily calories from added sugars in foods and drinks – and that higher levels of sugar consumption are correlated with higher risk of death due to cardiovascular disease.
Researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES – a large study updated each year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – to measure changes in sugar consumption over time and to see its effect on health. Added sugars were defined as “all sugars used in processed or prepared foods, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, grain-based desserts, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, candy, ready-to-eat cereals, and yeast breads, but not naturally occurring sugar, such as in fruits and fruit juices.”
Between 2005 and 2010, about 71 percent of Americans consumed 10 percent or more of their daily calories from added sugar, according to the study. The World Health Organization recommends limiting calories from added sugar to less than 10 percent of your daily total.
What’s more, people who consumed between 17 and 21 percent of their daily calories from added sugar were nearly 40 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease over a 14-year period than those who consumed about 8 percent of their daily calories from added sugar, the study found.
In general, people who consumed more added sugar also had more fat and cholesterol in their diets, and they ate less meat, vegetables and grains, according to the study.
Soda and other types of sugar-sweetened beverages were the No. 1 source of added sugar in American diets, accounting for 37.1% of the sweeteners. Those were followed by grain-based desserts (13.7%), fruit drinks (8.9%), dairy desserts (6.1%) and candy (5.8%).
In the past, experts focused on obesity and cavities as the primary health problems related to over-consumption of added sugars. But recent studies have linked the sweeteners directly to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, liver cirrhosis and dementia, among other chronic health problems.
The sugar found in convenience foods, sodas, “energy drinks”, processed foods and breakfast cereals are the main culprits. Avoiding soft drinks and limiting sweets to a once in a while treat as well as a diet rich in natural, whole foods with an emphasis on grains, lean meats, fruits and vegetables such as the MealEasy Balanced Meal Plan, will keep your calories from added sugar to well below the 10% mark. Mindless eating and over consumption of foods that are not good for us has led to a major problem. MealEasy has the solution.
