True Sugar Myths
Try this: type the words “Sugar Myths” into Google and see what happens.
What you are bound to find when you do that search is a listing, from the Sugar Association to the American Diabetes Association to dietitians to nutritionists all claiming that there is a lot of misinformation about sugar out there.
Here is what they say are the sugar myths:
- Sugar doesn’t cause hyperactivity
- Sugar doesn’t cause you to gain weight
- There is no such thing as a “sugar crash” or a “sugar high”
- Sugar is not responsible for diabetes
- Sugar doesn’t change the mood of children who eat it
- Sugar is not addicting
- Sugar does not cause heart disease
When I read that all I can think is: Are They Kidding?
What do they think is causing our epidemic of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in this country? If you track the amount of sugar a typical person eats, you find that most people eat from ¼ to ½ pound of sugar a day. If you think that is a lot, it is! Only 100 years ago, most people only ate 1 pound of sugar a YEAR. So, we go from eating 1 pound of sugar a year to eating at least 1 pound every few days and there are no health consequences from that? There has got to be health consequences from that much sugar intake.
Diabetes, by the way, has seen a similar rise over the same time period. In 1900, less than 1 percent of the population had diabetes, now it is expected that one third of all people in the United States will have diabetes some time during their lives. If sugar isn’t to blame, what is?
What is remarkable about all of these so-called sugar myths is that we all know better. Of course sugar changes our moods and the moods of our children. Of course sugar is addicting, there are scientific studies that prove sugar is just as addicting as cigarettes and other drugs. We have all had sugar highs and sugar crashes. And the evidence from scientific studies is growing; sugar is related to diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
The true sugar myths are the ones saying sugar that sugar causes no harm; you and I know better. My hope is that soon the medical community will wake up to the facts about the true harm that sugar causes.
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