Shocking Sugar Statistics

Not only do we get sugar from our sweets, they also hide in other places like this can of baked beans!

One of the most shocking things we learned so far in our Therapeutic Cooking Class is just how much more sugar Americans consume today than they did in previous generations.  Our teacher, Chef Kelly, shared a statistic that in the 1800's Americans consumed an average of about 12 pounds of sugar per person per year.  By the 1990's it was up to about 130 pounds per year per person!  A 2005 article in US News and World Report said that in 1967 Americans ate 114 pounds of sweeteners or sugar a year per capita and that nearly all of it was raw or refined sugar.  By 2003, each person consumed about 142 pounds of sweeteners per year and more of it was high fructose corn syrup which has become increasingly popular in the last few decades.

To me, this is the story of the downfall of the American diet as our bodies have not changed their nutritional requirements in the past few generations.  We don't NEED to be eating all this extra sugar and it is wreaking havoc our our collective national health.  

Even more troubling is the fact that people in distant generations were far more likely to consume natural sweeteners such as raw honey, pure maple syrup, molasses or sorghum syrup.  While our body still processes these as sugar, at least these natural sweeteners still have some nutrients in them such as vitamins and minerals.  For example, one tablespoon of blackstrap molasses has 15% of your daily iron requirement, 10% of your daily calcium, 8% of your daily magnesium, and 10% of your daily B6 requirements.

By contrast, todays sugars are highly processed and are stripped of most if not all nutritional value.  This includes cane sugar, brown sugar (which sometimes is just dyed brown) and agave.  By now, most people have heard of the dangers of high fructose corn syrup which is cheaper than sugar and in so many of our foods.  However, one of the worst choices of sweeteners are the artificial sweeteners which are toxic to the brain!  Splenda, Equal, NutraSweet, Sweet N Low and Aspartame are all examples of artificial sugars.  

Another class of sugars are the sugar alcohols such as xylitol and sorbitol.  While these sugars are not completely absorbed by the body so they won't spike your blood sugar, they do have a laxative effect so you have to be careful about using these also.  

If there was only one message that you take away, it would be to at the very least avoid fake sugar as this is TOXIC to your brain!  If you truly must have a soda, seek out one with real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.  Once you've done that try to use more of the natural sweeteners such as honey, molasses and maple syrup or just naturally sweet fruits like dates and raisins.

While natural sweeteners still have sugar, at least you also get some extra vitamins and minerals!

Our teacher also shared with us a document by Nancy Appleton that lists 146 Reasons Why Sugar is Ruining Your Health.  Surely there's a reason in that list that might motivate you to try to have less sugar.  Among the many bad things sugar does to you, some of the more shocking ones are that it suppresses your immune system making you more likely to get sick, upsets the mineral balance in your body, causes mental problems such as hyperactivity and anxiety, can cause premature aging, can contribute to diabetes, damages the pancreas, causes headaches and migraines, feeds cancer cells and on and on!

So I hope you'll stop and think a bit more about why you don't need all this extra sugar in your life.  Once you train your taste buds to not expect so much sugar, you will regain the ability to taste more of the sweetness in vegetables such as carrots and beets and you will not crave it so much.  It is not always easy at first to make these changes so one way to start is by gently reducing the amount of sweetener that you put in your familiar recipes and foods and try to wean yourself a little at a time.  You will be rewarded with perkier taste buds and better health!

Contributed by Natural Chef student Donna Bauman
Donna also writes a blog about her own personal food journey at http://fromprocessedtopure@blogspot.com