The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Heart Association Says Cut The Sugar

August 30th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Posted in food news, Wellness

How much sugars in your diet?

How much sugar's in your diet?

Do Americans really consume 22 teaspoons of sugar a day? That’s 350 calories, and the American Heart Association says that’s way too much. But get this: the mean daily sugar intake among teenaged boys is more like 34 teaspoons. That’s a lot of sugar.

The AHA has issued a statement saying too much sugar is contributing to diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Americans should slash their daily sugar intake by more than half, to no more than 100 calories for women and 150 calories for men. (Presumably, that means even less for kids.)

Sugar provides no nutritional value other than calories. The biggest source of sugar in the American diet? Soft drinks. Time to start drinking something else, folks. No more Big Gulps. No more sucking on bottles of Coca-Cola.

But here’s how corrupted the advice from groups such as the American Heart Association has become. Up to now, the AHA has been getting paid to sponsor products that contain lots of sugar, such as kids’ breakfast cereal. You can find the AHA recommendation right on the front of the cereal box.

Will the AHA now stop giving out those endorsements, asks food activist Marion Nestle.

Otherwise, we are all for the Heart Association finding something besides fat to pick on. Who knows. Now that they’ve shown a little sense, they might take a harder look at carbohydrates in general.

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  • Our Natural Life

    Ed, thanks for this post. Sugar can cause all kinds of problems. Even worse are high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) found in soft drinks, and other fructose containing “foods” such as the highly processed agave “nectar.” For more facts on these check out this article. http://tinyurl.com/lf4y2w

  • Julia

    A while back I switched from using half-n-half in my coffee to using sugar. I figured I would save about 50 – 100 calories a day. But I also think I heard that the calories in half-n-half are “Better?” do you know anything about this?

  • Ed Bruske

    Cathy, thanks for sharing the Nancy Fallon article on high-fructose corn syrup. People should know that HFCS is every bit as bad as regular sugar, and may even have more of a downside. In general, we are opposed to tax dollars being used to subsidize a polluting, unsustainable corn industry whose major biproduct is used to fuel an obesity epidemic.

    Julia, choosing between half & half and sugar would be a no-brainer for me. Sugar has no nutritional value. Half & half is loaded with vitamins and minerals, as well as a dose of fat, which every body needs. We get a weekly delivery of dairy products from pastured cows, and that would be our preference–cows raised outdoors on grass. In addition, fat–unlike carbohydrates such as sugar–is highly satiating. More likely, your body would actually be craving fewer calories if you used the half & half instead of the sugar. Carbohydrates make you retain water (weight gain, increase blood pressure) and tend to make you hungrier. Sugar is especially bad in this regard, since it causes spikes in blood sugar and insulin, which can lead to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. I’d lose the sugar in favor of dairy. (Milk products do contain some sugar in the form of lactose.)

    Love your posts about Even’ Star Farm, Julia. I miss visiting there.