It's close, and this makes it beerable - I mean bearable.
Posted on 07/02/2003 4:56:13 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Face it: we’re fat. Yes, we’ve taken low-fat and no-fat pledges, but government statistics and a trip to the beach show we’re just getting fatter. That has occurred even though many of us replaced bacon and eggs with a low-fat breakfast bar, traded in that roast beef luncheon sandwich for a can of Slim Fast and pick out fat-free dinners in the deep freeze.So why are 175 million Americans still classified as either overweight or obese? Some nutritionists argue that maybe we got bad advice, and they are rethinking the public fight against fats in food.
Instead, they are turning attention to an ancient dietary enemy — sugar.
There is absolutely no question that Americans have developed a very sweet tooth.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that over the last 40 years, per capita consumption of sugars has increased an astonishing 32 percent — from 115 pounds of all sorts of sugars per year in 1966 to 152 pounds in 2000.
There is a bitter disagreement over what that data mean.
Some nutritionists say increased sugar consumption is alarming, clearly the cause of the obesity epidemic. Others argue that the modern couch potato lifestyle is responsible for the larding of America.
You don’t always know it, but there is added sugar in the processed foods you are eating today. McDonald’s acknowledges on its Web site that sugar is an ingredient in its french fries, and nutritional studies show a Burger King Whopper contains more than a teaspoon of sugar. Nutritionist Nancy Appleton, author of "Lick the Sugar Habit," calculates 3 1/2 teaspoons of sugar in a cup of Frosted Cheerios and about 10 teaspoons in a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola. There are 15 calories in each teaspoon.
Products labeled low fat often have the highest levels of sugar. Sugar is a cheap ingredient, and food processors add it to other ingredients to keep the food tasty or to change the texture.
Dieters might be surprised to find there is more sugar in a can of strawberry Slim-Fast diet drink than in a quarter cup of M&M candies, and that low-fat and "healthy choice" breakfast bars with fruit filling have as much sugar as chocolate eclairs. Almost half of each teaspoon of ketchup is sugar, according to Appleton. Food companies label sugar content in grams: Every four grams translates into one teaspoon of sugar.
A 12-ounce Starbucks Grande Caramel Mocha coffee has the equivalent of almost 12 teaspoons of sugar, and if you have a Cinnabon Caramel Pecanbon with it, add another 12 teaspoons, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit group.
Some scientists contend people have become so preoccupied with preaching about the dangers of fats and the wonders of low-fat diets that they haven’t paid sufficient attention to the amount of sugar dumped into food.
Food without sugar or fat doesn’t have much taste, and "we aren’t horses," noted Robert Keith, a professor of nutrition at Auburn University.
"People have become overzealous about taking out all the fats. There are essential fatty acids we need to have," Keith said. The fats, he said, give substance to food — what scientists call "satiety values" — a sense of fullness after eating that sugars do not provide.
So, he said, "Some fat should be there."
There is no agreement among scientists on how much sugar should be allowed in food.
The World Health Organization says adding sugar to food is making people fat and recommends that people limit sugar consumption to 10 percent of caloric intake each day. A panel of American scientists with the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year said there is no solid data to validate a recommended level, but concludes that daily diets containing more than 25 percent sugar are unhealthy because the sugar interferes with absorbing other nutrients.
Studies estimate that sugars currently account for 16 percent of the average U.S. diet — up from 12 percent 50 years ago — and reaching the World Health Organization recommendation would require many Americans to cut back sharply.
Some nutritionists say this could easily be accomplished by consuming fewer soft drinks, cookies and cakes. They plan to push the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to emphasize the need to cut back on sugars when the agency reviews its nutrition label policy this year.
The sugar industry is fighting any limitation.
David Lineback, director of the Joint Institute of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the University of Maryland, said sugar is being blamed for increases in obesity that could just as easily be linked to overeating, portion super-sizing and inactivity. "Sugar is an easy and convenient scapegoat," he said, noting how much the American diet has changed in recent years. "If you ask me as a scientist, there is very little evidence sugar is responsible."
Andrew Briscoe, president of the Sugar Association, says the World Health Organization report is based on flawed science. He said his association will lobby Congress to reduce the $400 million in U.S. contributions to the WHO because of its negative views on sugars.
But the World Health Organization also has strong defenders. Nutritionist Marion Nestle, chairwoman of the Department of Nutrition and Food at New York University, said the 10 percent recommendation is in line with current prevailing scientific and government opinion.
"This has been decided for decades," she said, noting the current food pyramid issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recommends people limit consumption of sugars to 12 teaspoons a day. That translates to 180 calories out of an average 2,200 calories of daily consumption.
Nestle said she would back much lower levels of sugar intake — no more than six teaspoons a day of added sugars — and argues that people get sufficient sugar naturally in fruits and vegetables.
Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington’s center for public health nutrition, said economics is driving food processors to use more sugar in manufactured food because sugar is so cheap.
"They have rigged the food — sugar is ubiquitous in everything," Drewnowski said. "Sugar and fat are the cheap calories, and we are evolutionarily driven to them."
Drewnowski also urges people to be cautious about the low-fat labels on food and watch out for sugars.
"Slim-Fast, one pound can, has 267 grams, 66 percent sugar. You can’t tell me that sugar in Coke makes you fat, but sugar in Slim-Fast is going to make you slim. There are just a few more nutrients in the Slim-Fast," he said.
Others scientists minimize the role of sugar in the obesity epidemic and contend the problem is that Americans aren’t exercising sufficiently for the amount of food they eat.
"We need to talk about calories," said Alison Kretser, nutritionist with the Grocery Manufacturers of America. "It’s the number of calories as well as an excess of inactivity."
Cathy Nonas, director of obesity and diabetes programs at North General Hospital in Harlem, N.Y., agrees.
"It’s a calorie game. Nobody has ever proven that sugar will make you fat unless you eat too much of it. Fat is still more easily stored," she said. "It’s not as if you feed people sugar, it will make them fatter on its own. Sugar is an empty calorie and those who eat a lot of it tend to eat a lot of fatty stuff. And people are eating bigger portions and eating more times a day than ever — and all that, along with inactivity, contributes to obesity."
The chemical process is quite complex and some researchers even believe that a VIRUS is what causes the buildup of plaque, and this virus uses the elevated blood-sugar caused by excess CARBS along with the cholesterol from too much animal fat. If you eliminate the high blood-sugar, the animal fat doesn't matter.
I've been on Atkins about four years and have triglycerides of about 85... pass the bacon and eggs and oh yes, i'll have some diet jello with whipped cream, splenda, and walnuts fried in butter (topped with fresh strawberries and toasted coconut)
He was making people thin.
He's now dead.
BUMP
Yes, just as has been every person in the entire history of humanity who's ever made a breakthough in any field anywhere. First he's a psychopath, then he's a joke, then he's "unproven," then eventually everyone says they believed him all along.
The guy didn't claim to invent a pepetual motion machine. He spent his entire career developing this system, it works, and the medical establishment can't stand that they've been proven wrong, just like the Democrats can't stand it that the Republicans are running things now.
Go ask any serious bodybuilder what kind of diet they go on to prepare for a competition. It won't be the food pyramid diet.
Easy on the dogma.
Show me the studies. I'll show you two from the New England Journal of Medicine that say quite the opposite.
He's now dead.
LOL! This is possibly the single most uninformed post on any subject matter in the history of FR. Congratulations!
To edge you a little closer to reality: He died because he slipped on a patch of ice, busted his head open and ended up with intracranial bleeding that caused brain death.
Oh wait, let me guess, Atkins causes vertigo, right?
High fructose corn syrup has lowered the amount of calories we take as sweets.
An original 6 ounce coke with sugar was 125 calories.
A current 12 ounce can with hfcs is 150 calories, not the 250 it would have been with sugar to maintain the same taste. That is because hfcs is almost twice as "sweet" per calorie as sugar.
The whine about hfcs is just a cop out for not admitting that if we take in more calories than we burn, of any kind, we are gonna get fatter.
So9
The south beach diet is essentially the same thing but it was designed by a cardiologist who was tired of seeing his patients getting fatter and dying. But I guess it doesn't count because he is not a nutritionist. He'll need much more schooling to master that field.
It may not be worth your time, my friend. This thread's been infested with two groups incapable of even considering a different viewpoint no matter how much evidence you toss at them: People that believe everything they're told by the news media (except on issues of politics, interestingly) and members of the medical establishment who have too much of their own egos invested in pushing outdated information.
Remember how long it took the medical community to admit that most ulcers are caused by bacteria instead of stress, even after it was proved beyond the shadow of a doubt? They hate hate HATE seeing a paradigm shift in any field of medicine. It's amazing we manage to progress forward at all.
LOL! Spot-on!
HIGHLY MISLEADING.
The human body is not a laboratory test tube beaker where one calorie burned raised the temperature of water one degree.
The human body is *far*, *far* more complex than that and the evidence to this effect is quite ample -- we all know people who eat tons of stuff and are as skinny as rails and other who are constantly on a diet and cannot lose weight to save their souls even if they eat lettuce and broiled chicken all the time. The "setpoint" in human metabolism varies greatly with the human population.
please try to transcend your brainwashing that fat is caused by "lazy people who eat too much" -- it is not so.
The first "official studies" were produced this year, 30+ years after the diet's phenomenal introduction. Maybe they'll do a follow up study in another 30+ years. Personally, I won't be waiting around to find out, eating a low fat diet and developing diabetes and heart disease. Thanks, but no thanks.
The correlation between the increase in per capita consumption of carbohydrates (from 30 to 40 percent over a ten year period) and the increase in cases of diabetes and heart disease per capita is enough to convince me that low fat dieting is an unprecedented medical-field-generated disaster.
Besides strong opinions, I have seen no hard data indicating any problems with low-carb diets.
As I get older I find that my once vigorous appetite has diminished--but here is the kicker--I tend to get headaches if I don't eat enough. Especially early in the day. So because I am underweight, I tend to eat pretty much whatever sounds appealing to me--just to get something in my bloodstream. 90% of the time it is something carbo...
So what do you eat? Especially, early in the day? I was thinking of getting some of those protein drinks but the only one that doesn't kill you going down is loaded with an artificial sweetener.
Yep. I can't wait. In ten years it will be conventional wisdom. And we'll have many more low carb foods to choose from.
I remember talking to people about school vouchers 25 years ago and people looked at me like I had two heads....
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