YOUR HEALTH

SUGAR , SUGAR, SUGAR – fed up with Fed Up

I apologize in advance but I cannot ignore the ongoing and misguided attack on sugar.

A few weeks ago, a WHO recommendation that sugar – in the form of granular brown or white sugar, honey, molasses, maple syrup and corn syrup fructose and glucose, etc. -- should  be limited to 5% of daily calorie intake from their previous 10% received mass media attention and I responded with a blog to ‘correct’ the record – as I see it.

Now, a documentary, Fed Up, is being released, with Canada’s own bookstore – Chapters/ Indigo -  celebrity Heather Reisman as executive producer.  And of course, the film and its participants preach that the obesity epidemic is due SOLELY to one villain - SUGAR .

Maclean’s made it the cover’s picture labelled “Death by Sugar” and key article “Sugar Overload” May 12, 2014 issue, pp. 40-44.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a key figure, not only  believes its frequent inclusion in manufactured/processed foods of all types supplies us with hidden calories – which is the main complaint of the film and Reisman’s interview, but that sugar itself is harmful. He calls sugar “poison”.  (p.40, column 2).

According to Lustig, (p. 42) before 1977 – why that baseline year is not explained – our consumption of sugars was mostly through fruits and vegetables and about 30 grams per day.  Since 1977, sugar consumption has skyrocketed and continues to rise due to ‘hidden sugars’ (fructose and glucose if labelled)  in processed foods of all sorts : since sugar is a great and cheap preservative and adds flavour.  Since this timeline coincides with the obesity epidemic as measured by the BMI, sugar must be the culprit, argues Dr. Lustig, Ms. Reisman and the film Fed Up .

Maclean’s does not bring in experts to refute the claims but, to its credit, does point out previous ‘single cause’ manias for the Obesity epidemic  have empirically failed the reality – i.e., what happens in the real world of people’s lives and have been abandoned, more or less.. Maclean’s mentions previous attacks on cholesterol, carbohydrates  and fat, and quotes Dr. David Jenkins of the University of Toronto:  “ Sugar, fat and salt are basic drivers for survival. We’ve struggled like mad to get sugar.” (p.42)

Put simply, the above three are essential to healthy survival.  Salt prevents dehydration and is essential to cell metabolism. Fat is nature’s way of giving us energy that can be stored in our bodies for future need, keeps our skin from drying out or having constant acne and pimples,and is essential to the movement of vitamins A, D, E and K through the bloodstream and their absorption.  Some fatty acids also play a role in brain development, blood clotting and managing inflammation. ¹

As for sugar, it  give us an immediate energy boost and gives our brains a serotonin kick: it makes us feel good, and happy.

As for the idea that we ingest too much ‘hidden’ sugar and that we should go back to home-made meals as of old – as Reisman advises, I suggest that this is a delusional reconstruction of the past, a false ‘memory’ of what it was like living and eating ion North America between 1945 and 1977.

Prior to 1960, artificial sweeteners were very limited.  Coca Cola did not introduce Tab – the first non-sugar pop that became mainstream until 1963.

So what was the average person’s sugar intake after 1945, when WW2 ended and life in North America reached a prosperity boom and higher living standard with cars, houses and lots of available food?

As a baby boomer, I remember in the 1950 and thereafter seeing breakfast pancakes and waffles smothered in real, sugar-high maple syrup.  People would have 2 to 4 slices of toast with butter or often sugar-laden jam or marmalade and, of course, wash this down with 1 to 2 cups of  coffee saturated with whole milk and lots of sugar –  usually totalling  2 -4 teaspoons.  If there was hot oatmeal cereal, sugar, honey or maple syrup would be added in large quantity to make this healthy food palatable. If dry cereal were eaten instead, the favorites were Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (invented in 1896: 2 g sugar and 220 mg salt), Rice Krispies (1928: 3 g sugar and 190 mg salt), Cheerios (1941: 1 gm sugar and 186 mg salt) or Frosted Flakes (1951: standard bowl = 17 g sugar and 250 mg salt) . When ingested by kids, you can be sure most had with it a glass of whole (fat) milk spiked with Nestle’s Chocolate powder Quick (1948: 15 g sugar in 2 tbsp), Hershey’s chocolate syrup (1926: 20 g sugar, 15 mg salt)or, when available, real chocolate milk – 100% regular fat milk and super sweet(since 1680 Ireland: 37 g sugar and 180 mg salt).

For lunch kids got sandwiches: often bread loaded with sugary jam (11 g sugar and 10 mg salt) and/or peanut butter (Skippy peanut butter =  3 g per tbsp and l 150 mg salt), and have chocolate or butterscotch pudding for desert – or a few cookies or cake or pie – all sugar laden.

And when adults weren’t around, we would drink pop – good old 100% sugar Coke (1886; 1 can = 39g sugar, 45 mg salt), Pepsi, Dr. Pepper( 1895: 1 can = 44 g sugar and 65 mg salt), Orange Crush, Hires Root Beer (30g sugar and 65 mg salt) and any other brand around and available.  NO ONE DRANK BOTTLED WATER OR WATER period unless all other alternatives were absent – and your mouth was as dry as sand!

As for family home-made meal time: lunch and/or dinner, coffee and tea for adults were sugar laced, and, except for the Italians who had fruit for desert, we were all “mangia cakes” and would have amply servings for desert of home-made or bakery made cake, cookies and pies --  all loaded with sugar (and whole fat butter or lard)!!! 

If you check 1960’s home-made cake recipes, 2 cups of sugar was the norm in the flour mix alone, with extra sugar for any icing! (See http://www.twisted-candy.com/1950s-cake-recipes.html)

And 2 U.S. cups = 96 tsp U.S. or 403 g of sugar!!!!!

Even today, ready-made frozen Mrs. Smith apple pie has 18g sugar per slice and cherry pie 32g!!!

 

During the 1950s and thereafter, snacks were, beside potato chips (high in salt and fat), candies and chocolate bars – all 100% sugar!!! (Aero bar = 24 g sugar and 20 mg salt).  In the summer, ice cream – sugar laden  (Breyer’s strawberry- ½ cup = 16 g sugar, 47 mg salt) -- was added to our almost daily routine.

And don’t forget Jell-O at 19g a serving!

Grocery stores also carried Oreo cookies (3 cookies = 14g sugar and 190 mg salt), Twinkies (each 16 g sugar and 220 mg salt) and Hostess chocolate cupcakes (each 20 g sugar and 240 mg salt)  -- all of which would also show up in a lunchbox.

When we became teenagers and the local soda shop or Dairy Queen arrived, ice cream sugar heaven ensued: Sundays, parfaits and my personal favourite – because it had healthy fruit – the banana split: 3 scoops of ice cream, three sugary toppings, chocolate syrup and cherries to boot (Dairy Queen:  large banana = 17 g sugar; rest = 75g sugar and 160 mg salt). And then in 1964, Tim Horton’s opened donut heaven to Canadians (chocolate dip  = 17 g sugar) copying that American staple since 1937, Krispy Kreme, whose ‘original glazed donut’  still has 11g sugar and 105 mg salt! 

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So, if the ‘golden age ‘ was before 1977 when, according to Dr. Lustig, sugar consumption was     BELOW 70+g per day (p.42), then no one I know or grew up with was part of that universe.         Not my family, cousins, schoolmates and certainly not the kids and adults who bought into the foods marketed by TV ads!

Adult daily coffee and/or tea – 6 to 8 cups with 1 to 2 or more tsp each of sugar– would alone be 25g to 70 g or more!  ( 1 tsp = 4.2g)

Add cake, cookies, pies, chocolates, ice cream, donuts, banana splits, maple syrup, jam, etc. and there is no way the average North American adult ingested under 70 g of sugar a day. 

As for kids or teenagers, 2 cans of Coke + 1 Areo bar alone would be 102 g of sugar!!!  If we had had to cut back, we would have had trouble reducing our sugar fix to under 140 g per day!!!

So the idea that sugar was limited in the average diet of the 1950s and 1960’s in North America may have been  true for those on isolated farms, but it was not so for anyone living in a town or city -- even when mom did the cooking and baking: because sugar made everything taste better, and helped preserve food when refrigeration was in its infancy and hot weather made things spoil or dry out quickly.

Put simply there was no shortage of sugar consumption.

Sorry Heather and Dr. Lustig, your historical memory (and the facts) have failed you.

 

PS:  I am not repeating at length my criticism of the BMI and its misguided, athlete-thin ideal as the norm and how it overnight declared millions obese. New research by Dr. Carl Lavie , The Obesity Paradox, and life Insurance actuarial charts that go back decades do not see an obesity epidemic – just increased life spans.

 

1.  http://www.livestrong.com/article/43948-fats-important-diet/