The Overconsumption of Sugar Module 3: Problem, Solution, and Evaluation Essays Figure 1. Added Sugar (Singer, 20013). Prompt: In recent years, the overconsumption of sugar has become a serious issue. Describe two possible solutions to reduce sugar intake levels and evaluate them. 1
Text 1: Eating too much Added Sugar Increases the Risk of Heart Disease A major study, The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) claims a diet containing too much sugar may raise the risk of dying of heart disease even if a person is not overweight. Added sugars make up at least 10% of the calories the average American eats in a day. But about 10% of people get an enormous 25% or more of their calories from added sugar. Added sugars are sugars and syrups that are added to foods or beverages when they are processed or prepared. This does not include naturally occurring sugars such as those in fruit. Over the course of the 15-year study, participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% added sugar. Overall, the chances of dying from heart disease rose in relationship to the percentage of sugar in the diet. Sugar-sweetened beverages such as sodas, energy drinks, and sports drinks are by far the biggest sources of added sugar in the average American s diet. They account for more than one-third of the added sugar consumed. Other important sources include desserts; fruit drinks; ice cream; candy; and ready-to-eat cereals. Food manufacturers often add sugar, in the form of high fructose corn syrup, to enhance the flavor of food, especially foods with a reduced fat content. The NHANES report recommends that people should have fruit-based desserts or, better still, plain fruit with no added sugar. Instead of drinking sodas, a little fruit juice could be mixed with tonic water. Source: Kid, P. (2013). Food security: A major issue. Food Science Journal, 20 (2), 247-248. Text 2: How to Reduce Sugar Intake In recent decades, the amount of sugar in people s diet has increased dramatically in the developed world. For example, in the UK, people s sugar consumption has increased by 31% since the 1990s, so that now the average person eats half a kilo of sugar a week. Children in Britain get 17% of their daily calories from sugar. There are several factors for this increase. They include the popularity of soda drinks: one can of cola is said to include seven teaspoons of sugar. 2
More surprising perhaps is the amount of sugar to be found in unexpected places, for example, in low fat and fat-free foods. These kinds of foods were introduced about 35 years ago and were sold as healthier options. Unfortunately, when fat is removed from food it does not taste as good. So, to improve the taste of these foods, food manufacturers add salt and sugar. In the same way, hidden sugar is also found in dieters drinks. For example, 60% of the drink Slimfast is sugar. Figure 2. Slimfast snacks (The Slimfast Plan, n.d.). Research has shown that too much sugar in the diet can lead to serious illnesses like diabetes and heart conditions. One solution to this serious problem is to reduce the quantity of sugar in our diet replacing it with healthier food. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that a healthy diet should comprise only 10% sugar. The first step towards achieving this is good nutrition. Eating balanced meals is essential for reducing the need to eat sugar-based foods. For most people this means approximately 50% of the meal consisting of vegetables and the rest comprising protein and a little oil or other fat. Another step is to avoid low-fat food products, for reasons explained above. If we have a healthy balanced diet, it means that the body has everything it needs. It will not feel the sudden need for extra sugars. Source: Hall, K. (2011). Changing what you eat. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. Text 3: US Sugar Association Challenges World Health Organisation The U.S. Sugar Association (USSA), which includes such giants as Coca-Cola, Pepsi- Cola and General Foods, is reported to have tried to persuade the US government to stop giving the World Health Organisation (WHO) money unless the latest report on sugar is withdrawn. The report published by the WHO recommends that sugar should form no more than 10% of a person's diet. The USSA says other evidence suggests that sugar can safely form one quarter (25%) of a person's food intake. Figure 3. Lobbying the government (Carnes, 20014). 3
The USSA has spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising and donating to politicians. In 2012 alone, the sugar industry spent nearly $2.5 million industry-wide on advertising. In addition, the industry has contributed $2.8 million in individual contributions to pay politicians to make sure the sugar industry is protected. Source: Boseley, S. (2013, April 21). Sugar industry threatens WHO. The Guardian. Retrieved from https:// www.theguardian.co.uk Text 4: Sugar is the Real Enemy Figure 4. Reading labels (Torrens, n.d.). A recent film called Fed Up has challenged years of misconception and food industry-sponsored misinformation about obesity. The claim is that obesity is the main reason people are dying of heart disease or developing type 2 diabetes. This is not the case, argues Robert Lustig, a leading neuroendocrinologist and President of the Institute for Responsible Nutrition. He argues that the main threat to our health is the amount of added sugar we include in our diets. It is a view that is gathering support from doctors. According to Lustig, if obesity was the problem, illnesses that are normally only found in the obese would not be affecting the normal-weight population. More than half the normal-weight populations of the US and UK are experiencing effects normally associated with obesity. If more than half the population has problems, it must be something other than obesity. The problem is the higher levels of added sugar in our diets. Many people feel that governments should accept the argument that sugar should comprise only 10% of our diet. They also believe that the best solution to the problem of too much sugar in our diet is by governments passing laws. Such laws might include putting health warnings on softdrinks cans, giving equal advertising time to marketing fresh fruit and vegetables and voluntary agreements to reduce sugar content. More extreme measures may be to make sugar more expensive through taxation, make it harder to buy by reducing the amount of sugar that companies are allowed to produce, or to ban advertising. Many people argue that the sale of soda, fast foods and snacks should be banned in or near schools. Unfortunately, efforts to restrict the sugar industry have largely failed. When the World Health Organisation (WHO) published nutritional guidelines recommending that no more than 10% of calories in a daily diet should come from sugar, this angered the US Sugar Association (USSA). If people ate less sugar, then the sugar industry would sell less sugar and their profits would then fall. To try and stop this, they put pressure on the American government. The US government threatened to withhold US funding to the WHO if it published the guidelines. The US government were not only unwilling to pass laws to reduce the use of added sugar, they have actually improved 4
the profits of the manufacturers of sugar and processed foods by protecting artificially high prices. It is not in the interest of food, beverage or pharmaceutical companies to reduce sugar content because it is too profitable. The pharmaceutical industry talks of diabetes treatment, not prevention. The food industry makes a disease diabetes - and the pharmaceutical industry treats it. Neither the food industry nor the pharmaceutical companies are interested in reducing the sugar content in food. Source: Helmore, E. (2014, May 10). Sugar is the real enemy. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www. theguardian.com Text 5: Can we Stop Eating Sugar? Most of us know that eating too many sugar-based products (e.g. chocolate, cookies, cakes, etc.) is bad for our health. A simple solution would be to go on a lowsugar diet. However, many people find it very difficult to reduce the quantity of sugar in their diets. One possible argument for this is that people can become addicted to it. A number of studies claim that giving up sugar can be as difficult as giving up smoking. However, other nutritionists argue that these studies have not provided conclusive evidence that sugar is addictive. Figure 5. Sugar addiction (Kick Your Sugar Addiction in 4 Steps, n.d.). There are other factors that affect our sugar intake. Sugar is readily available in our food supply. It is used in low-fat foods to improve the taste of the food because it tastes nice. For most people, it is much more difficult to stop eating cakes than spinach. Finally, many people often use sugar as a reward and as the main food substance during celebrations. All these factors make sugar a central part of not just our diet but our lives. Source: Saeed, M. (2009). How to live well and longer. New York, NY: Pergamum Press. 5
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