one lump or two?
Sugar has oft been in the news of late, in fact like never before. So, with calls that food manufacturers dramatically reduce the amount in processed products by as much as 30%, is it as bad as we’re being told; is sugar the new ‘fat’ or even the new ‘tobacco’? Scientists and health commentators alike explain that, even though we love it, we actually don’t need ANY refined sugar and it’s hardly surprising that it’s making us sick. Prior to the 16th century, average consumption measured just one teaspoon per person per year; today we get through 12 teaspoons. Every day.
Much of today’s use is also cunningly hidden in processed foods and disguised behind such monikers as high-fructose syrup or various starches. Mind, you’d be wrong to make any difference between these variants and refined sugar as they’re all exactly the same; the only difference is the cost of production and ease of transportation. Gobble up your low-fat smoothies and yoghurts at your peril as it’s the sugar that makes them palatable. And to our western sweet tooth, edible.
But get this, it isn’t as clear cut as you’d first think. For generations Cubans, with an average of 80kg per person per year, have had one of the world’s highest rates of sugar consumption yet have markedly lower levels of obesity and diabetes than their fat neighbours in the US, where a comparatively modest level of 34kg is consumed. Furthermore the US level of sugar in diet fell 1% between 1970 and 2005 even though all poor-health indicators shot off the scale. ‘Bad’ science also attempts to convince us that sugar has single-handedly accounted for the stratospheric rise in type 2 diabetes, but this is just not the case; it’s simply caused by the over-consumption of calories, not sugar per se. But, of course I hear your cry, how do we get our daily intake of calories if not through the gorging on processed food which in turn is stuffed to the gills with sugar. No one on a diet ever lost weight without cutting out the sugar first!
Sugar is essential to big-business and their high-volume production model and there’s more chance of you giving up the white stuff than there is of them giving this up without a fight.
