Sugar – pure, white and deadly!
Many doctors and scientists think that the phenomenal rise in obesity is mainly attributable to our greater consumption of sugar.
We shouldn’t have more than 6-7 teaspoons of sugar per day, but we are now, on average, consuming 22 teaspoons of sugar per day! Some call them ‘empty calories’ while others call them ‘toxic calories.’
It is made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose and has NO NUTRIENT VALUE at all. You could live happily without it. It comes in many names – maple syrup, honey, molasses, brown sugar, agave syrups, corn syrup, barley malt, cane sugar, dextran, sucrose, maltose etc.
Sugar is sneaky. It finds its way into foods that are sold as ‘Low Fat.’
Yes, the fat content is low but the sugar content is high such as in many ‘low fat’ yoghurts. Activitia Fusions Bluberry Acai yoghurt contains 16g or four cubes of sugar equal to one and a half doughnuts. This is more sugar than a Burger King Whopper, which has 12g or three cubes of sugar. It’s also in coleslaw, tomato ketchup, baked beans, tomato soup, salad cream, seemingly healthy fruit juices, smoothies and granola cereals and bars and a thousand other products. Don’t be fooled!
We suggest that you watch this 9 minute video made by Robert Lustig, MD, of the University of California who looks at the rise in obesity and diabetes with the massive consumption of sugar, particularly fructose in the last 30 years.
Here is another link to a 22 minute video again by Robert Lustig MD which goes further into the politics of sugar and individual responsibility. It’s a good watch.
For many people sugar is the single largest source of calories – specifically high fructose corn syrup which is sneaky and hidden in thousands of foods and drinks. In 1700, 300 years ago the average Briton consumed around 4 pounds of sugar per year. In 1800 it was 18 pounds per year. In 1900 it grew to 90 pounds and in 2009 the average American, and many Brits, were each consuming 180 pounds per year – that’s a whopping half pound of sugar per day!
Sugar is killing us.
Sugar is loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks and hidden in almost all processed foods – from bologna to pretzels to tomato ketchup to cheese spread. Unbelievably, much infant formula has the same sugar to a can of Coco-Cola, so we are unwittingly metabolically poisoning our babies!
A third of us are obese, that is we have a BMI of over 30, and a third are overweight. As far as diabetes goes, 30% of us are pre-diabetic and don’t know it; and 10% of that third, i.e. 3% of the population, will go on to develop full blown Type 2 diabetes in their lifetimes.
Sugar content in common foods and drinks
To help you keep track of how much sugar you’re consuming we’ve listed some common everyday foods and drinks, together with their sugar content. Some of these may surprise you:
How much sugar is in a chocolate bar?
With high sugar content, chocolate should always be viewed as an occasional treat.
- Snickers bar(52.7g) – 6.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Milk chocolate bar(44g) – 5.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Milky Way bar(58g) – 8.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Twix bar(50.7g) – 6 teaspoons of sugar
- Milk chocolate M&M’s packet(47.9 g) – 7.5 teaspoons of sugar.
How much sugar do soft drinks contain?
Soft drinks often contain a high amount of sugar.
- Coca cola(one can) – 8.25 teaspoons of sugar
- Pepsi cola(one can) – 8.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Red Bull(one can) – 6.9 teaspoons of sugar
- Sprite(one can) – 8.25 teaspoons of sugar
- Old Jamaica Ginger Beer(one can) – 13 teaspoons of sugar!!!!
And the acids in soft drinks rot your teeth. Tooth enamel dissolves at 5.5 ph (acidity). Water is 7ph – fine. Milk is 6.2 ph , coffee and milk 5.3 ph, Diet 7 Up 3.71 ph, tomato juice 3.7 ph, DFiet Coke 3.28 ph, 7 Up 3.2 ph, Diet Pepsi 3.03 ph, Coke Classic 2.53 ph and battery acid 1 ph. Smile!
How much sugar is in your breakfast cereal?
*(per 100 grams)
Froot Loops are said to contain 105 times more sugar than Shredded Wheat.
- Alpen– 5.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Cheerios– 1 teaspoon of sugar
- Corn Flakes– 2.4 teaspoons of sugar
- Cocoa Krispies– 9.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Froot Loops– 10.5 teaspoons of sugar
- Raisin Bran– 7.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Frosted Flakes– 8.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Honey Smacks– 14 teaspoons of sugar
- Rice Krispies– 2.5 teaspoons of sugar
- Special K– 3 teaspoons of sugar
- Wheaties– 3.75 teaspoons of sugar
- Honey Nut Cheerios– 8.25 teaspoons of sugar
- Cocoa Puffs– 9.25 teaspoons of sugar
- Shredded Wheat– 0.1 teaspoons of sugar