I don’t take credit for this awesome phrase:
“Our food process has absolutely been sugar-jacked.”
–Anne Alexander, Prevention Senior Vice President, Editorial Director
So, have you been sugar-jacked? Don’t know? If you are overweight, normal weight obese or obese, you have been sugar-jacked. And, chances are, we all have been sugar-jacked to some extent.
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Food product label deception is a problem. For instance, a food that claims to be sugar free actually means that it contains less than 1/2 gram of sugar per serving. And, a food that says reduced sugar means it contains at least 25% less sugar per serving than the regular product. Get the picture?
And, many food products contain sugar or even worse, high fructose corn syrup. Some include sodas, salad dressings, ketchup, mayonnaise, cereals, bread and some yogurts.
Nutritionists believe sodas (and sugary drinks) are like liquid poison. The double jeopardy is that soda adds calories without making you feel full (empty calories). Consistent, excess sugar consumption is a major contributor to dangerous belly fat and diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
According to government data, sweetened soft drinks add about 10 percent of the calories in the typical American’s diet.
Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard endocrinologist, who is widely cited by obesity researchers, says that sweetened drinks are the only specific food that clinical research has directly linked to weight gain. “Highly concentrated starches and sugars promote overeating, and the granddaddy of them all is sugar-sweetened beverages,” said Ludwig, who runs the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
The increase in soda consumption mirrors this nation’s obesity epidemic. At the midpoint of the 20th century, Americans drank four times as much milk as sodas. Today, this trend is almost totally reversed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the past 30 years, the national obesity rate has more than doubled, and among teenagers, more than tripled, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On a gut level, we already knew this information about sweetened drinks. But, it helps for us to read it and “digest it.”
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I will be there….I want to see you there!
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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES Her Fitness Hut
