Sugar

So, 60 minutes tonight was pretty interesting.  They did a piece on sugar. The piece basically said that sugar in large quantities was a toxin.  It can lead to heart disease and cancer.  Obesity and hypertension were also mentioned. 

Sugar is in a lot of processed foods and being the scientist that I am, I have to wonder if it is sugar or the fact that people eat a lot of processed foods which contain sugar is a better explanation.  There are so many foods that have sugar in them:  bread, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, yogurts, salad dressing.  I prefer the low sugar products and find I gravitate towards the natural, but more expensive peanut butters and such precisely because they don't have sugar in them.  Don't get me started on why Skippy peanut butter isn't on my ten favorite foods....suffice to say, it is too sweet!  Most people eat 1/3 of a pound of sugar a day!

Now I have often said that I could live without chocolate for the rest of my life.  It is a necessity of many people but I am more of a salty taste liker than a sweet taste liker.  I'll eat a potato chip over a cookie any day.  I know unhealthy too! I don't drink a lot of soda either, but as I drank my lemonade I wondered if I could go sugar free.  Another interesting fact is that there is nothing on the plant that has naturally occurring fructose in it that is poisonous, so when you eat something in nature that is sweet, you know you aren't eating something poisonous, so we are born liking sweets.

I have a bit of a problem with high fructose corn syrup just because of the impact corn has on our lives. If you haven't read, The Omnivore Dilemma, you should.  It will really open your eyes to the impact corn has on our lives.

There is a tiny place in Texas, called Dublin.  They have Dr. Pepper there that is made with sugar.  Droves of people go to that town specifically to get the Dr. Pepper made with sugar.  It is better, you can taste the difference, so over time I have gradually chosen to move towards sugar soda and away from high fructose corn syrup soda. 

Here's the really ugly part they discussed on the show.  They did studies that found that when they put people on diets that provided 25% of their calories from sugary drinks, that their LDL cholesterol went very high in only two weeks!  So, drinking a sugary drink may be as bad for you as eating a cheeseburger.  They also have found the spikes in insulin, in response to sugar intake may have a link to cancer.  People also appear to build up a tolerance for sugar, so the more you eat, the more you have to eat to get the same increases in dopamine levels.  It is like any addictive substance, you need to consume more to get the good feelings.

Thought provoking and interesting.  I probably won't be drinking a soda again anytime soon.  Who knows how good the science is, but as with all things, moderation can't be a bad thing.

If you are interested here is the link for the 60 minutes story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n

And here is the youtube video from the doctor they interviewed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM