SUGAR IS BAD FOR YOU SAYS AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION, BUT TAKE THIS ADVICE WITH A PINCH OF SALT
New AHA statement adds upper limit to added sugar intake, cites links with CV risk factor
The scientific statement incorporated new evidence on the relationship between sugar intake and cardiovascular health gathered since the publication of the 2002 AHA Statement on Sugar Intake and CV Disease. In 2006, the AHA published an update to its recommendations for the intake of beverages and foods with added sugars. Citing results from several studies, the authors of the 2009 statement said that intake of excess sugars has been associated with risk factors for CVD such as elevated blood pressure and higher triglyceride levels.
“Although the mechanisms are unclear, relative to other carbohydrate sources, sugar intake appears to be associated with increased triglyceride levels, a known risk factor for coronary heart disease,” the researchers wrote in the statement. “However, relative to other sources of carbohydrate, the effects of sugar intake on HDL and LDL levels remain unclear.”
Hold on, it is not time yet to throw out your sugar containers and switch on mass to no calorie substitute, don’t feel happy that you can now drink Diet Coke instead of the Regular Coke!
Why?
Do you think Sugar is the Culprit?
When I say sugar, what comes to your mind?
Above, white sugar and brown sugar in the photo
(reminds me what Louis LaRose, a HoCank Indian, once asked me, are you a white sugar doctor or a brown sugar doctor? There is more irony in it than meets the eye, since I am brown skinned and I am a “sugar doctor”, someone specializing in treatment of Diabetes)
And whenever I ask an audience, do Americans Consume more Sugar now than ever before? The answer is always a resounding YES. Then I show them the above graph..
Most Americans are astounded to hear that we eat 45 pounds less sugar now than thirty years ago. What they mean by Sugar is Sugar Additives and Sugar substitutes. As you can see from the above graph, the consumption of their ever increasing High Fructose Corn Syrup now occupies the lions share of Sugar Consumption. It is produced from Corn chemically.
The other chemical products in this category which has entered into the imagination of American Public include: Maltodextrin, Corn syrup Solids, Dextrose, Crystalline Fructose etc.
Knowing that in 1970 High Fructose Corn Syrup did not exist and Obesity and Diabetes were not in the minds of Americans and in 2000 High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything, with Americans consuming at least 65 pounds of that stuff each year for each and every adult American…now look at the statement of the American Heart Association..
So whatever reason, American Heart Association does not want to come out and say it is High Fructose Corn Syrup and other artificial additives that is raising Triglycerides (a fact known to the biochemical scientific fraternity for a long time, but not the medical community), they can lump everything together and say Sugar is the culprit.. and thus the innocent American Public can go on reducing the meager white sugar consumption (instead put the deadly Splenda in their coffees) and happily go on consuming High Fructose Corn Syrup, with the outcome that nothing beneficial happens to their triglycerides and Insulin Resistance and Diabetes..
Dr Sudah Yehuda Kovesh Shaheb, an Endocrinologist and an Anthropologist, works with UmonHon and HoCank Indians, among other things. His social blog is at www.medicoanthropologist.blogspot.com
