Ahhh….Sugar

The USA Today put out a recent piece discussing the data from the National Center for Health Statistics which showed that for kids,  59% of added-sugar calories come from foods and 41% from beverages.   The sources or “added sugars” they mentioned were table sugar, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, molasses and other caloric sweeteners in prepared and processed foods and beverages, such as cakes, candy, cookies, muffins, soft drinks, jams, chocolates and ice cream.  This did not include fruit or fruit juice.   The article goes on to say that “a diet high in added sugars is linked to many poor health conditions, including obesity, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease and stroke. The findings come at a time when a third of children in this country are overweight or obese.”  This is pretty brave stuff but not brave enough.   What if other carbohydrates are just as bad?  I mean bread, pasta, pretzels, bagels, etc. all raise your blood sugar almost as high as table sugar (via glycemic index).  Should this be ignored?  Why is just “added sugar” the culprit?   They quote a nutrition professor at UNC who states,”A major problem is that sugar contains nothing nutritional, and it is edging out the food kids should be eating, especially real fruits and vegetables.”  So now we need to define sugar a little better.  The truth just may be that sugar equals all carbs equals insulin spikes equals obesity equals leptin and insulin resistance which equals diabetes, heart disease and even dementia.  Isn’t it about time that we start talking about this?  Probably not because this could put a major dent in the grain world and they would not like that so much.  So….we get partial statistics like we saw in this study.