Every Halloween, people go through a sugar craze of candy, but when that holiday passes are we still experience a less prevalent sugar craze? Chances are, yes. In a day and age where fat gets most of the blame for weight gain, people tend to overlook the true amount of sugar in foods. From glucose, to sucrose, to fructose, to syrup, there’s just too many names to keep up with and sum together.
So, how much sugar is really hiding in our food? BBC looks into it in this article . I’m surprised and interested to know how much sugar I actually consume in a given day. On a college campus, salt and sugar are added to food to preserve and add favorable taste. Manufacturers use the same technique. Not only are many dishes high in sodium, but those low in fat have to be compensated with sugar to offset the bland taste. This sugar, if not burned, is eventually converted to fat by the body’s processes.
Instant gratification in food and in decisions seems to be a downfall in society. Bad consequences add up overtime and seem to bring truth to “No pain, no gain.” I argue that there is gain, just nothing desirable. No pain adds to a buildup of pain. Eating sugar all day leads to a number of diseases. Also, sugar rushes followed by energy crashes tend to leave people less likely to do anything more than falling back to sweet treats. This negative feedback loop gets more and more difficult to fight, and even when one musters interest in limiting sugar intake, that alone is increasingly difficult.
The biggest trick in analyzing food labels for sugar is just by paying attention to the amount of carbohydrates. This is just a fancy term for sugar molecules. So what does this all mean for scientific discovery? If enough people get outraged by this unhealthy food production, maybe we can see a rise in demand for healthy food. Though typically more expensive, science could be used to discover new methods of delivering what we need rather than being manipulated to hide what we don’t.
Picture Source: (https://blogs.ksre.ksu.edu/nutrition-education/added-sugars-add-up-in-our-diets/)
Cara, I was both shocked and interested in this study because I thought Splenda was healthy but guess I was wrong, the funny thing is even though I’m not the best advocate of healthy eating I always thought Splenda tasted kind of funny, I never really liked the way it tasted. I guess that was a way of the good bacterias I have saying Splenda was no good.
After reading your article I was very interested in the effects sugar has. I always wondered why Splenda sweetener claims it is better for you. I have always heard bad things about Splenda and that it is in fact is bad for you. I looked into the topic and found that there are many studies done on this topic, intact I think I might make a blog post on it ! Long story short there are many negative effects of Suctalose aka Splenda decreases the amount of “good” bacteria by 50 percent. Splenda was also caused the pH levels in the intestines as well as in crease body weight! Someimes going the natural route is the safest route to learn more on the effects of Splenda check out : http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/02/10/new-study-of-splenda-reveals-shocking-information-about-potential-harmful-effects.aspx