Here is the second part of a interesting article I found in The Sunday Times
How much sugar should we eat?
Most
health organisations recommend that people limit themselves to 10tsp (40g) of
added sugars a day, but many researchers say it should be as low as 6tsp for
woman and 8tsp for men. Teaspoons are much easier measurement to visualise than
grams, so lock this easy equation in your head: divide the number of grams by
four to get the number of teaspoons. To put that in perspective: a regular
Snickers bar contains 27g or about 7tsp sugar, a 220ml can of Coke has 35g or
9tsp of sugar, three Oreos have 14g or 3 ½ tsp, and a chocolate-glazed Krispy
Kreme doughnut has 26g or 6 ½ tsp of sugar.
We
shouldn’t eat manufactured sugar bombs like that, full stop. Any food with
sugar in the first three ingredients is a bad idea. Sadly, it’s not as simple
as cutting out foods that you know are packed with sugar. Lustig says “The food
industry has contaminated the food supply with added sugar to sell more products
and increase profits. Of the 600,000 food items in American grocery stores, 80%
have been spiked with added sugar; and the industry uses 56 other names for
sugar on labels. They know when they ass sugar, you buy more. And because you
do not know you’re buying it, you buy even more.”
So,
are we actually physically addicted to the sweet stuff? Most nutritionists
respond to that question with: “Try giving it up and then tell me what you
think.” The chairman of the Functional Medicine Institute, Dr Mark Hyman,
believes we are. “The slick combinations of sugar, fat and salt in junk and
processed food have hijacked our taste buds, brain chemistry and metabolism.
These foods are biologically addictive. We are held hostage by the food
industry and yet we blame ourselves for not having willpower,” he says. “One
animal study found that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. When rats were
given the choice between cocaine or sweetened water, scientists found that most
rats who initially preferred cocaine switched over.”
Sugar
improves our mood by prompting the brain to release the “happy” hormone
serotonin, which is exactly why we turn to it when we are happy and
celebrating, but also when we are sad, lonely or tired. The problem is that
what goes up must come down, and those inevitable sugar crashes just make us
crave more sugar and encourage a cycle of binge eating that makes us
increasingly overweight and unwell.
Keep an eye out for the next part of this fantastic article
Richard Taylor Personal Training Club
www.richardtaylorpt.co.uk
"Changing your lifestyle to incorporate exercise and proper nutrition is not easy. But it is defiantly a journey with endless rewards that are well worth achieving!
