Sugars Affecting American Food

Besides the obvious culprits of high sugar levels in American food products such as the all too popular ice creams, cakes, and sodas that Americans love, there are also foods that people wouldn’t think of as high in sugar. Sugar is in everything we eat from the ketchup in the fridge to the baby food we feed children. Sometimes a product boasts about being “sugar free” yet the label tells evidence of certain sugar substitutes that can act no different than table sugar in our bodies once ingested and metabolized. If sugar is in most of what we eat, then how does that affect Americans? It could be inferred that not only does sugar affect entire ethnic and socioeconomic populations but it also impacts the health of age groups (i.e. children, adults,

The person may not know that table sugar’s scientific name is sucrose. Sucrose is made up of two simple sugars: two parts fructose and two parts glucose. Fructose is what is found in fruits and vegetables and is mainly a caloric sweetener, hence high fructose corn syrup. Glucose is the main part of sucrose that contributes to bodily functions and gives off energy. Overall, sucrose is a carbohydrate (carb) or a main nutrient that is essential to the sustainability of life and after it is ingested, is broken down into the simple sugar that our bodies can use, glucose. Carbohydrates are an important part of the human diet; however, an excess in carbs or table sugars can negatively impact human health (“Background on Carbohydrates and

According to PBS.org, the 1980s was the start of the “low-fat phenomenon” in which the food industry claimed that dietary fat or the saturated fats in our foods were the source of weight gain across the nation. The decision was to create low-fat food products to decrease calories but load the products with sugar. This result was that it did not decrease the amount of calories in the product but kept it relatively the same. Walter Willet, M.D., the chair of the nutrition department at Harvard School of Public Health, stated, “I even had colleagues who were telling the public that you can't get fat eating carbohydrates.” (“Did The Low-Fat Era Make Us Fat?”). This displays the point of view of Americans on their dietary habits. It was generally thought by many that if the fat content of the food an individual was consuming was eliminated then the quality of that food was healthier. However, it was not taken into account that fat makes food taste better and to take it out of the equation means that there needs to be a substitute for taste. According to the Sugar Association, one reason that sugar is in our food is because “it enhances the smoothness and flavor of [food]”. (“Why is Sugar in Food?”) Nevertheless, since sugar is a carbohydrate, logically it would increase daily calorie intake and cause weight