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Obesity and sugar
The effects of sugar on the human body
The effects of sugar on the human body
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Recommended: Obesity and sugar
Sugar, the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, is found in almost everything. Sugar is found in cake, candy and soda as well as in other less obvious food items such as hot-dogs, mayonnaise and hamburgers. In North America, sugar is consumed in extreme quantities and the consumption rate is only growing larger. Doctors and health professionals warn people about the horrible effects of sugar on the body, but what about on other aspects of our being? What exactly are the effects of sugar? This essay will attempt to prove how large amounts of sugar is our daily diet have negative effects on our physical health, as well as in our emotional health and mental health.
The average North American consumes roughly 140 lbs. of sugar, around being 30 teaspoons a day.
Effects on the heart When issues with the heart are mentioned, people usually assume it’s due to fat. Though when given a closer look, sugar is often to blame. As of recently there has been found huge links between heart disease and diabetes. Sugar leads major artery damage, causing inflammation. This can lead to major health issues including clogged and or weak arteries, heart attack and stroke. The American Heart Association has suggested that women get no more than 100 calories a day, 6 teaspoons and men get no more than 150 calories
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With the increasing use of high fructose corn syrup, the national obesity rate has sky rocketed. Run-ins with health problems are inevitable at this point. A pointless, yet popular debate is if there is a connection between the two. High fructose corn syrup was chemically designed to be as similar to table sugar as possible. Though, the human body handles the two surprisingly differently. With disregard to the type, high amounts of any added sugar, contributes to weight gain, health issues, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, all increasing risk of heart
High-fructose corn syrup is a commonly used artificial sweetener in foods. High-fructose corn syrup is a hydrolyzed version of ordinary corn syrup, which is produced via a steeping process. It is so widely used because it is both economically favorable and it helps to preserve food for extended periods of time. However, the drawbacks of high-fructose corn syrup include issues like potential obesity, diabetes, loss of liver function, malnutrition, and cancer. The fact that the producers of high-fructose corn syrup can deceive people that HFCS is harmless makes matters worse.
Lustig, Robert, Laura Schmidt, and Claire Brindis. “The Toxic Truth About Sugar.” The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition. Ed. Thomas Cooley. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 284-289. Print.
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
Obesity in America has risen dramatically in the last forty years. Many believe high fructose corn syrup is to blame for this and other health related issues like diabetes and high blood pressure. High fructose corn syrup was invented by Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi in 1957 (Production of high fructose corn syrup). Scientists have done tests and many reports and found many statistics showing the same thing: once high fructose corn syrup (or HFCS) was added to food and beverages in 1975, obesity rose without warning. The U.S. has the highest obesity rate in the world: “roughly two-thirds of adults and one-third of young people in the U.S. are now overweight or obese” (McMillen). That’s a massive amount, and it’s growing at a steady pace with little sign of ending any time soon. We also eat more mass produced food than any other country in the world. High fructose corn syrup has taken over the food market and has found its way to almost all of our food and drinks.
According to the article, Too Much Can Make Us Sick (http://www.sugarscience.org/too-much-can-make-us-sick/), “Heart disease. Diabetes. These chronic conditions are among the leading causes of death worldwide. Increasingly, scientists are focusing on a common set of underlying metabolic issues that raise people's risk for chronic disease. It turns out that the long-term overconsumption of added sugars is linked to many of these dysfunctions.” This means that people living today, have a lot more trouble with diseases because of our unhealthy sugar intake compared to the
Lowndes, J., Sinnett, S., Yu, Z. and Rippe, J.M. (2014).The Effects of Fructose-Containing Sugars on Weight, Body Composition and Cardio-metabolic Risk Factors Nutrients When Consumed at up to the 90th Percentile Population Consumption Level for Fructose. Nutrients. 6,
The average American eats 156 pounds of added sugar each year. Sugar is delicious and once we have it, our body constantly wants more. Added sugar has become an American epidemic. “Eighty percent, or 480,000 of the 600,000 food products sold within the U.S. have added sugar, which, according to researchers and medical doctors, is why we have the world 's highest obesity rate is at 31 percent,” (Fed Up). The addictive quality of added sugar makes our brains want more of it constantly; however, our bodies are being negatively affected by its consumption in many ways.
Sugar is considered a toxic poison. Sugar leaches the calcium out of the skeletal frame of a human’s body. Sugar literally sucks the calcium straight from our bones; therefore it is known to many as a “skeletal poisonous powder.” There are thousands of individuals struggling throughout the United States with sugar addiction. Sugar is a leading cause of a number of health-related issues. Sugar causes health issues such as, fibromyalgia, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis. Like me, many individuals have no clue that they are addicted to sugar. Up until this single subject design, I thought my eating habits were quite normal. I honestly did not realize how much sugar I was taking in everyday. This single subject design has truly encouraged me to live a healthier lifestyle. The purpose of this study is to indirectly determine my sugar intake, by counting calories daily and reducing my caloric intake.
HFCS is being used for almost every food product in the food industry. However, if we look at HFCS from a limited point of view we just see it as something present in our food and not the health factors behind it. HFCS can be habit forming since it is a sweet replacement for sugar and in his article Peretti mentions that David Kessler said “sugar, through its metabolisation by the gut and hence the brain, is extremely addictive, just like cigarettes or alcohol.” People enjoy the taste and because of this they consume large quantities, which lead to health factors such as: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, infertility, liver problems, and so on. Our limited perspective may cause us to lose sight of how much of a risk HFCS possess. In my case I use to think that my family gained significant amount of weight only through fatty foods and...
Over the last 50 years, sugar has become a staple in the American diet and can be found virtually anywhere. In fact, it is often hiding where you would least expect it. Sugar is no longer found only in sweet treats, but in many of the basic meals we eat on a daily basis. In saying this, it isn’t surprising that many adults and children are consuming more sugar than our bodies can process. Growing up in a very health conscious family, the notion that sugar is addictive and unhealthy has always been stressed in my household. While some kids would flaunt their candy bar at lunch, I was left eating an apple. At a young age, I was resentful of the lack of sugar in our cabinets. However, as I’ve grown older I have realized that my parents did me
For years doctors have been saying that refined sugars are empty calories and consist of absolutely no vitamins or minerals that people need to survive. Dentists warn that sugary foods encourage tooth decay. Many people avoid sweet food because it can lead to obesity, heart problems, diabetes and cancer. These negative responses by people’s bodies are actually warnings. Maybe people eat sugar for other reasons than the sweet taste. The human body's negative responses to sugar may be a similar purpose to the reason kids feel pain when they are playing too roughly. People’s consumption of sweet foods might also serve as a sign of defiance against their bodies’ health limitations. What many people do not realize is that their tasty treats can affect their mind and emotions.
Richards uses this quote as well as a quote from Laura A. Schmidt of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, in order to reinforce how bad too much sugar is for the human body saying, “The new paradigm hypothesizes that… too much sugar does not just make us fat; it can also make us sick.” This again reestablishes the fact based reporting that is in direct contrast from the Konie article which uses personal experiences and anecdotes in order to support her
We are all familiar with sugar. It is sweet, delicious, and addictive; yet only a few of us know that it is deadly. When it comes to sugar, it seems like most people are in the mind frame knowing that it could be bad for our health, but only a few are really taking the moderate amounts. In fact, as a whole population, each and everyone of us are still eating about 500 extra calories per day from sugar. Yes, that seems like an exaggerated number judging from the tiny sweet crystals we sprinkle on our coffee, but it is not. Sugar is not only present in the form of sweets and flavourings, it is hidden in all the processed foods we eat. We have heard about the dangers of eating too much fat or salt, but we know very little about the harmful effects of consuming too much sugar. There still isn’t any warnings about sugar on our food labels, nor has there been any broadcasts on the serious damages it could do to our health. It has come to my concern during my research that few
If we minimize our sugar intake and paid attention towards the nutrition facts and the ingredients that are put in our foods, we would live a healthier life. Sugar in our diet is also called carbohydrate composed of fructose and glucose. Glucose and Fructose are mainly in all sweeteners. We need to pay attention to the hidden sugars on the ingredients label; there could be extra sweeteners after “sugar” on the ingredients label, Ex. Corn syrup, Molasses. Sugar causes cancer cells to grow tooth decays, obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer, etc. Glucose is used as energy to transport material within our body; fructose causes problems in the body. Sugar are absorbed by our body really fast, when the sugar within is not used for energy it starts to form layers of fat around the liver. Cancer cells consume glucose cells as its energy, which makes cancer cells to grow. Our natural feel-good brain chemical is the neurotransmitter, serotonin. Sugar boosts the serotonin level in our brain.
Artificial sweeteners have become a vital part of the sugar industry and are marketed as zero-calorie sugars that can cause no harm to the body, but do they truly cause no harm? Although these sweeteners do not directly cause health problems they do have very strong connections to the development of diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and misconceptions about weight loss.