The Sugar Industry Plus Our Love of Sugar is Killing Us

Paco Dennis

Paco Dennis

SF VIP
Location
Mid-Missouri
We all know that sugar is found in chocolate, soda, and candy – but did you know that it’s also in yogurt, ready-made meals, potato chips, marinades, sushi, ketchup, and mayonnaise, among many other food products? In fact, sugar has gone from being a luxury item reserved for the monarchs and elites of the world to becoming a staple in most diets, whether we want it to be or not.

So how did we get to this point and what are the implications for our health?

10 minute read...
Our Love of Sugar is Killing Us
 

I've been aware for quite sometime that most everything today is laden with sugar, which is why I cook and bake from scratch, and for years now have been baking using less sugar.

Overall hubby and I try and keep our sugar intake down knowing what a killer sugar truly is.
 

Paco Dennis said:
The Sugar Industry Plus Our Love of Sugar is Killing Us
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I was glad that the article you linked included how fat became villainized, and sugar became the "hero" replacement in our diet:
You may have come across the popular assertion that saturated fat causes heart disease. However, the truth isn’t as simple as this basic equation – which might even be entirely false.

So where do rumors like this come from?

In this case, the scientist Ancel Keys was the one who popularized the link between eating fatty foods and getting heart disease.

During the twentieth century, heart disease was on the rise and everybody was looking for a simple explanation, so Keys’s theory was readily accepted.

But if we look closely, we can see that Keys had a conflict of interest: his research was sponsored by the sugar industry. Not only that, he was the inventor of K-Rations, the food packets used by the military, which were also full of sugar.

The sugar industry was eager to spread the news of the findings as additional evidence that sugar isn’t bad for your health.

They were largely successful in their propaganda, and fat was the number one enemy in the world of food throughout the 1970s. By the 80s, any scientist who so much as hinted that sugar was the real cause of heart disease ran the risk of being called out as a quack by agents of the sugar industry.
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An article in an AARP newsletter from last year lays out the case on how diet & lifestyle contributes to inflammation throughout the body, and how inflammation is the root cause of many illnesses.
https://www.aarp.org/health/conditi.../lowering-inflammation-to-improve-health.html
 
I watch contents and read labels and I rarely drink a soda and never eat candy or pastries but my sugar on my last bloodwork was about 30 points over normal and I am stumped as to why.
 
Excessive consumption of Sugar is just one of the many things wrong with so many peoples diets....that, and an apparent lack of physical exercise. A person only needs to glance at the others around them, when out in public, to realize that there is something substantially wrong with their lifestyles....well over half of our population, both young And old...are substantially overweight.
 
I was surprised at the corn syrup in food also. I read labels more now than I ever did. But there are a few things I will not deny myself. I try to keep things in moderation but at Christmas and Thanksgiving I give myself permission to eat all the turkey, dressing and the sides I want.
 
squatting dog said:
Heck, never mind the sugar, look at the sodium content in almost everything. :eek:
Stick the 2 together and it's a lose lose deal. :(
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The cynical way that the sugar industry adds any of the fructose, sucrose and glucose to process foods in order to stimulate an addiction is tantamount to the way tobacco companies spray the tobacco with additional addictive chemicals. The salt industry is no better. Marg makes a valid point: "I cook and bake from scratch."

Preparing and cooking your own food will negate the additional additives, I couldn't agree more.
 
horseless carriage said:
The cynical way that the sugar industry adds any of the fructose, sucrose and glucose to process foods in order to stimulate an addiction is tantamount to the way tobacco companies spray the tobacco with additional addictive chemicals. The salt industry is no better. Marg makes a valid point: "I cook and bake from scratch."

Preparing and cooking your own food will negate the additional additives, I couldn't agree more.
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Can you imagine what the death toll numbers would be, if tallied for toxic and harmful food additives? Googling shows "1 in 5 deaths", another google hit said "11 million worldwide"...."Unhealthy diet contributes to approximately 678,000 deaths each year in the U.S".
 
Ladybj said:
Hubby enjoy his sweets... he has a sweet tooth. Me on the other hand, don't care for sweets..chocolate, cake, candy, fruit drinks, etc.. Sugar is highly addictive.. it can act as a drug.
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I’ve got a huge sweet tooth and love eating cookies,candy, cake, ice cream, muffins, pies 🥧 🍦 🧁 🎂 🍬 🍫 but try and keep it in check on most days. I agree that too much sugar is added to our foods in so many forms and it’s highly addictive.
 

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