I wholeheartedly urge all of you to watch this 90-minute presentation called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth". This specialist in childhood obesity from the University of California, Dr. Robert Lustig, gives an extremely convincing argument for looking at sugar as a poison or a toxin.
And if you find that 90-minutes is too long, then read this NY Times article summarizing Lustig's argument. I watched the presentation a few weeks ago and I read the article just yesterday and I actually preferred the article. Easier to keep up with the nuances and details.
And if even the article is too long for you, then allow me to summarize them both:
SUGAR SUCKS!
According to a 1986 FDA-sponsored study on sugar, individuals limiting themselves to 40 pounds of added sugar (the sugar beyond what we get from fruits and vegetables) per year demonstrated no conclusive proof of harm. Forty pounds per year amounts to 200 calories of sugar per day or the equivalent of a can and a half of soda or two cups of apple juice. Unfortunately, in the 80's, it was estimated that the average annual consumption of sugar was around 75 pounds a year!
So even back then, our levels of sugar consumption were potentially problematic according to that conservative study. "By the early 2000s, according to the U.S.D.A., we had increased our consumption to more than 90 pounds per person per year."
So clearly our diet has resulted in an unmaintainable rate of sugar consumption. But getting fat is the least of our worries. Recent studies are showing a strong correlation between sugar and insulin resistance.
"...if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat. This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers."
The way our body metabolizes sugar and high-fructose corn syrup is extremely problematic.
"It very well may be true that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, because of the unique way in which we metabolize fructose and at the levels we now consume it, cause fat to accumulate in our livers followed by insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, and so trigger the process that leads to heart disease, diabetes and obesity. They could indeed be toxic, but they take years to do their damage. It doesn’t happen overnight."
That being said, scientists haven't been able to conclusively correlate the increased amounts of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, or some forms of cancer.
Yeah, even cancer.
"Cancer researchers now consider that the problem with insulin resistance is that it leads us to secrete more insulin, and insulin (as well as a related hormone known as insulin-like growth factor) actually promotes tumor growth."
So, eventhough many studies are inconclusive, two of the leading experts on cancer and its potential link to insulin, Craig Thompson and Lewis Cantley have both taken the extreme measure of removing sugar from their diets.
"“I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little as I possibly can,” Thompson told me, “because I believe ultimately it’s something I can do to decrease my risk of cancer.” Cantley put it this way: “Sugar scares me.”"
Indeed, sugar scares me as well.
With young children of my own, I am struggling to wean them from the high levels of sugar in their diet. So much of the food and snacks available nowadays is full of sugar. For now I'm focusing on two basic rules in our home: no sugar-infested drinks (replaced with milk and water) and lots of fruits. Simple steps that I suggest everyone else take as well.
WAW
4 days ago
11 comments:
Assalaamu alaikum :)
Its funny that when you cut down your sugar intake significantly, the naturally sweet foods like fruit tastes even more amazing with time.
Nice post!
Assalaamualaikum
I agree that sugar is terrible. I omitted refined sugar from my diet about two years ago and there was a significant difference in the way I felt. In fact, some time after that, I visited someone and out of politeness I accepted a cup of tea with sugar in it (she had already added 1 tsp of sugar to my tea without my knowledge). Just that small cup of tea with that one tsp of sugar was enough to get my heart-rate pacing so violently, I thought that there was something wrong. I can't imagine what it does to our bodies every single day!
The problem, as you said, is weaning oneself off our favourite products that contain sugar too. We live in a world where there are simply too many additives and whatnot in our food - and people wonder why there's so many illnesses. Everything's been refined and chemical-ized. And I don't know about Arabia, but here in SA, organic natural food is quite expensive so many people don't have the luxury to be make healthier choices. (Although, I'm sure they still could if they really wanted to).
AA-
@CC, I'm sure that's true...hopefully I'll get a chance to experience that soon. :-)
@Azra, interesting point about your heart-rate pacing after an extra tsp of sugar. I think this lack of body-awareness to the food we regularly digest is a serious problem. We've so lost touch with our bodies that we are unaware (or simply ignore) the warning signs our bodies give out after we've eaten toxic foods.
We just gobble up food without the slightest bit of awareness of how our bodies are responding. Instead, we just pop pills to silence our immune system instead of communicating and understanding it.
Assalamu alaikum brother nice to read a post from you again! And thank you for highlighting a very serious problem in today's world. It's terrible how much high fructose corn syrup is added to many foods, particularly processed ones...I remember hearing about how HFCS is addictive so that's one major reason why food companies add it to their foods; HFCS helps people remember and yearn for the taste of whatever junk food they're addicted to (chips, candy, soda, etc) and then go out and buy it! HFCS is also found in alot of fast foods like McDonalds, KFC, etc.
@Azra
In Saudi Arabia it's also a problem finding affordable food that's also organic. Here they've also adopted the Western notion that only the rich and middle class should be able to afford "healthy food". You know what's interesting I once read a report that discussed about how in developed nations it's the poor who wind up fighting obesity while in underdeveloped nations the rich have to do so (the poor in underdeveloped nations have their own health problems but obesity is not one of them). The fact that the poor in developed countries usually buy processed foods because it's cheaper has something to do with this; meanwhile in underdeveloped nations the poor usually make do with whatever they have. In Bangladesh dahl (a type of lentil soup) is considered a poor man's protein source because that's all the poor can usually afford to eat there along with rice instead of other sources of protein like fish, meat, chicken, etc.
Assalamu alaikum
@RCHOUDH - Thank you for that information. On why I said that if we (South Africans) really wanted to, we could try to eat healthier:
Dahl is a staple amongst the Asian groups here too. We make it in a variety of ways and various lentil dishes used to feature prominently in traditional homes. The problem is that in our contemporary times, Dhal is not seen as "cool" to the younger McD-generation and as such people have turned more to fast food.
Here in SA, we have over 500 mosques and more than triple that amount in the wide variety of Halaal fast food outlets that's available in every city!
Adding to our problem is the after-effects of Apartheid... a Post-Apartheid collective conscious where eating out and being able to buy fast food has some sort of status unconsciously attached to it. SA is a country that is still deeply affected by the psychological wounds passed on from generation to generation - the result being that most people feel entitled and are terribly materialistic and status driven so buying fast food is seen as some sort of liberty afforded to them - because they couldn't before.
Compounding our problem is that our fast food isn't exactly cheaper. It's quite expensive to eat out here because most of the Halaal meat come from privatized sources (which is incidentally healthier because most of it is free range) but we end up paying double for the privledge.
Our fast food stores are divided up between those that are privately and individually owned, and then the franchises. Most (a majority although not all) privately owned / individual fast food stores use mostly free-range halaal chicken. Our franchises, like McDonalds and KFC use soya and chicken sourced from those farms where they're mass produced... which doesn't make it free range... but it doesn't matter because they all charge the same astronomical prices.
Those products that are still relatively cheap are all the lentils and vegetables like Spinach and Cabbage etc. However, organic fresh fruit and vegetables is ridiculously expensive here... again, everything falls victim to mass production. Even the milk we buy is contaminated with the hormones that are injected into the cows to make them grow faster. It's such a massive issue *sigh*
Only Allah knows.
I should add that a lot of people have turned to fast food because they simply do not have the time to cook... contemporary families here have both parents working 8 or 9 hours a day... so cooking becomes less of a priority to some.
Jazakillah ul Khair Azra for all the helpful info on South Africa. I learned alot today! Re: what you said about families eating out more because of work/time constraints, that's similar to what happens in America. Oftentimes with both parents working, the excuse was that it would take too long to cook thus it's better to order out (or grab some ready made TV dinners from the supermarket that you can pop into a microwave)! Also I heard that in America just until recently feminists from earlier generations used to hail eating out as a "privilege" for women because it "freed" them from being a "slave" to the house with dreadful chores like cooking/cleaning, etc! Well just like with the bottled milk craze of earlier years, that "privilege" has shown itself to be a double-edged sword, hence now the public is being encouraged back towards more "traditional" actions (cooking one's own food, breastfeeding, etc). Also I thought it was interesting that in SA it's considered a mark of high status for families to eat out; now in America it's considered a mark of working=-class status because the only families that frequently eat out at fast food places are ones from low-income households. At least it's good to hear halal food outlets in SA use organic chicken! Thanks again for all your insight!
I've always been a sugar addict - but that changed a bit 3 years ago when I was labelled as a diabetic risk 3 years ago (by the doc). Still though - the nafs are too strong - and though I have less now, i still consume way more than i should.
I am terribly weak, and i don't see the consequences now - but when i'm old, i think, that's when the regret will set in.
Willpower too weak now... :(
ANyway - to add my 2 cents on the topic of processed food etc - there was an incredible article in Al-Jumuah magazine years ago that was an eye-opener for me about the food industry.
"Unwholesome Harvest" By Shireen Pishdadi (Operations Coordinator, Taqwa Eco-Foods)
Read it at:
http://www.cairchicago.org/thescoop.php?file=sc_ecofoods
You should try jaggery ( in moderate amounts ) and totally eliminate sugar fromt he house :-) That's what we did 16yrs ago when we had kids. never thought to buy sugar all these years and kids don't use it either. neither do we buy white flour.. just get wheat flour whole.
you won't miss sugar and what sweets need to be made can be made with jaggery , much better for your health too ..
Even after reading so many articles on the dangers of sugar, I'm still addicted to sugar. I just can't seem to stay away!!
Thanks for sharing the video link. I found your blog looking on information on quitting sugar. Now, I'm convinced it really is evil.
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