At long last, the scientific “establishment” is starting to understand that it’s the sugar, stupid!  At long last, they’re starting to relay the important message that sugar (and all caloric sweeteners) are the major cause of obesity and health problems in our country and in our world.   “Sugar is toxic beyond it’s calories,” say researchers from UC/San Francisco.  ”The public’s excessive consumption of sugar not only is contributing to a global obesity pandemic but also is critically altering people’s hormones, metabolism and blood presssure and causing significant damange to the liver.” 

An article entitled “The Toxic Truth About Sugar” was published by the scientists in Nature, a journal.  The article draws attention to the unhappy fact that consumption of sugar (and all caloric sweeteners including HFCS) has triped worldwide over the past 50 years and contributes to 35 million deaths each year.  The biggest problem to be corrected is the false but popular belief that caloric sweeteners are relatively harmless because they’re just empty calories.   Of course, sugar has no fat, which also makes it seem harmless.  We’ve all been relentlessly brainwashed to believe that fat is the culprit in our diet, when it’s been sugar all along.  People simply don’t understand that sugar is toxic and addictive.  For one thing, excess sugar consumption mimics the effects of drinking too much alcohol, which of course, is made from distilling sugar!  Also, as mentioned above, caloric sweeteners have a dramatic impact on metabolism, your body can’t handle the chronic overload.   They raise blood pressure, disrupt mineral absorption,  alter hormonal processing, and overload  liver function.   How bad is that! 

The scientists recommend making sugar consumption slightly less convenient by imposing a licensing requirement to sell sweetened drinks and snacks in schools and in the workplace.   This would control access in the same way that access is controlled to alcohol and cigarettes.  In other words, it makes products loaded with concentrated doses of caloric sweeteners slightly more expensive and restricted.  We’ll have to see what the food manufacturers. lobbyists and libertarians have to say about that!  It won’t be pretty. 

The bottom line is that this is really good news.  This research is a tiny but hopeful chink in the low-fat, low-calorie message that has led us down a very long and wrong path for the past 50 years.   Hooray for the Sugar-Free Miracle Diet Sytem that’s been extending this message a full 5 years ahead of the power curve!  Listen up out-of-control eaters and sugar addicts!   It’s absolutely essemtial to get caloric sweeteners (and foods that quickly convert to sugar)  out of the diet!   Eating sugar is like giving an alcoholic a drink.   For get all the psycho talk, and do something practical with the way you eat.

BPA doesn’t have anything to do with out-of-control eating or weight loss, but it can make you, your kids, and your fetus sick. BPA is the acronym for Bisphenol-A. It’s a plastic component that’s used in many plastic bottles and containers. It’s also in the epoxy resin that lines most cans. Manufacturers use BPA-type products because they prevent spoilage, they’re resistant to corrosion, and they can withstand the high heats used in sterilization. There is no law against using BPA, so you have to think for yourself on this one.

That said, the government’s National Toxicology Program has a concern about the effect of BPA on fetuses, children and pregnant women. Some studies suggest that BPA might impact brain development, cause hyperactivity in kids and increase the risk of breast cancer (as well as other health problems). I wonder, personally, if BPA could explain the explosion in the incidences of autism that we’re seeing in our country.

BPA has already been removed from most baby bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers, but it’s still present in cans (incuding, of all things, baby formula cans) and in other plastic containers, bottles and toys. The problem with BPA is that it leaches into the food or the drink, which means that BPA is being regularly ingested and stored in the body. Plastic with BPA is especially dangerous when heated because this inceases the likelihood of leaching. BPA mimics the effect of estrogen, a hormone, and it disrupts and interferes with normal homonal functions.

The January/February 2012 Nutrition Action Letter summarized a study where researchers fed 12 ounces of canned soup (Progresso) to one group and 12 ounces of fresh soup to another group. All-in-all, 75 people had soup for lunch every day for five days. The results. Several hours after lunch, the people who ate the canned soup had BPA levels in their urine that were 12 times higher than the people who had fresh soup. Researchers don’t really know how much BPA is harmful, but small amounts have been show to cause breast cancer in animals.

The safest bet is to stop feeding infants formula that comes in a can, and to consider cutting way, way back on the amount of soup or canned foods you give your kids for lunch everyday. In general, look for bottles and cans that are clearly marked BPA-free. Eden Organic, for example, uses BPA-free cans for most of their products. Avoid polycarbonate (PC) bottles that have a #7 or #3 recycling code. Note that acidic foods like tomatoes, can’t be packaged in BPA-free cans, but there are brands that use cartons, like Pomi. For heating, always Use glass or ceramic products. Never use any kind of plastic or plastic wrap in a microwave.

According to the Tufts Univesity Health & Nutrition Letter (December 2012 edition), the American Heart Association recently revised it’s heart healthy eating program. New dietary guidelines include up to 35% of calories from fat, especially monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, which are now recognized as desirable and okay. Unfortunately, the American Heart Association and other organizations are way behind the power curve and have to undo the incorrect low fat message that resulted in skyrocketing overweight, obesity and diabetes statistics. The truth is that people who avoid fat products, but who eat foods that have a lot of sugar (caloric sweeteners) and refined flours get FAT and increase their risk of heart disease. That’s the damn cosmic joke of it all, and the Sugar-Free Miracle Diet has been broadcasting this message for years!

Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are easily identifiable because they’re liquid at room temperature. These fats include olive oil, canola oil and others. Saturated fats, such as butter, and trans fats are hard at room temperature. The really dangerous trans fats are the ones that are man-made from polyunsaturated oils, which are then solidified through the process of hydrogenation or partial hydrogenation. Imagine this unnatural hard stuff floating around, blocking cellular pathways, and generally doing damage in your blood stream. Don’t believe the trans fat free claim on the front of food packages. Through the magic of legislation, food manufacturers can add a small amount trans fats into their products and still claim it’s trans fat free.

 

Craig W. Markert, MD
Karen Bentley understands weight management. She knows that losing weight and gaining weight are predictable outcomes based on the way that you eat. Her book will help you to lose weight and to keep it off because it's written by someone who passionately lives, teaches and writes about successful weight management.

 

Your new job is to look at the ingredients list and see if the word hydrogenated appears. Many Mom-friendly foods like peanut butter have hydrogenated ingredients. This would be okay if kids only ate peanut butter once in a blue moon, but many kids eat peanut butter every day. It’s a travesty because these man-made trans fats are the most deadly, toxic foods in the universe. Better products exist. Look for them.

For more information about the Tufts Newsletter, go to www.tuftshealthletter.com

Brown University did a study of 3,000 participants in the National Weight Control Registry, which tracks successful dieters for 10 years. By the way, 75% of successful long-term dieters are women, and most of them have a college degree. (Keep in mind, however, weight loss reporting is totally self determined, and the predisposition to report may have more to do with computer savvy-ness than anything.)

Anyway, here’s the stats:
Original weight: 224 pounds
Average weight loss: 69 pounds
Average weight regained: 18 pounds (which is still a total of 51 pounds lost)

These are the 8 most common weight maintenance strategies:
1. Eat breakfast regularly
2. Walk an hour per day (or equivalent activity)
3. Weigh self weekly
4. Track food intake
5. Count calories or fat grams. (Average of 1,800 calories per day)
6. Limit eating out to 3 times per week, including fast food once a week or less.
7. Limit food variety, mostly eating similar foods from week to week.
8. Watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.

For more information about the National Weight Control Registry, go to www.nwcr.ws