If you’re unaware of what foods you’re putting in your mouth, or your kids mouths for that matter, you and they are going to die before it’s actually necessary. The latest in the ‘conspiracy stories comes true,’ goes to the sugar industry. According to some investigative reporting by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, sugar industry officials, in the 1960’s, paid off Harvard researchers to minimize the negative effects sugar had on Coronary Heart Disease. They Harvard researchers were asked to move the blame to fat and cholesterol. 50 years later, we have an obesity epidemic that is not getting any easier to deal with and one culprit is too much sugar.
There are many movies available now on Netflix and independently produced and distributed about big pharma, vaccines, animal treatment, vegetarianism, and on and on. For most people in our country, these films are off the beaten trail. It’s for the “vegans” some might say, some weird group of non-meat eating hippies. Well, it looks like more and more evidence is increasing and showing us that big corporation after big corporation simply have one thing in mind: to make a profit. Turns out a lot of these movies might just be true. In this case, the sugar industry profited well, and a lot of people, for generations have been dying before their time.
If you ask me, it’s time to take a stand. I know, it’s really tough because sugar is everywhere. It’s in your ketchup, it’s even in your bread and your milk! I’m a relatively healthy guy and I drink almond milk. Guess what, a regular 8oz glass of almond milk has 7gms of sugar. That’s almost 2 teaspoons. Why? Almond milk is almonds and water. Why does it need sugar? Because more people will buy it. Because our vulnerable children will want it, they’ll get hooked on it, they’ll want more, they’ll over eat, become obese, and a whole myriad of problems will begin to occur. I’m over it!
According to the recently published article in the JAMA Internal Medicine, it turns out that even back in the 1950’s, what was called the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF), there were early signs of how sugar had a negative effect on the body and could be contributing to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). The SRF conveniently found that it was fat and cholesterol that was the culprit in CHD. There was a paper published in the JAMA Internal Medicine in 1965 which set the food business on a course of vilifying saturated fat instead of sugar.
Now, there is the Paleo movement, the low carb high fat diet, ketogenic diet, and more emerging science that shows we should be fueling ourselves with much less sugar and more fats. It’s how we were genetically designed. A great resource is a talk given by Robert Lustig here.
I can tell you from first hand experience that I’ve been feeling amazing for the last few years. I’ve been on a low carb high fat diet. I’ve had way less crashes, minimal highs and lows, and I’m as lean as I’ve ever been. And by the way, I grew up drinking soda, eating Frosted Flakes, and having sugar and candy on a daily basis. Now I keep my total carbohydrate intake to about 100-150gms per day. For a little clarification, a bowl of oatmeal is 30gms, a banana is 34gms. Needless to say, my days of oatmeal with a banana and raisins are long gone. And I feel amazing!
Yes, the researchers from Harvard should pay their dues for what they did, but they’re already dead, according to the article. May they rest in peace, but can’t help but wonder if it was too much sugar.
I write this all because I want to be as healthy as possible and I want to live as long as I possibly can. I also want you to do the same. When I read stories like the one here it truly breaks my heart. I want to believe that science is good and that big companies are looking out for the well being of their consumers, but the truth is they just aren’t. The only safe way to stay healthy and thrive is to avoid a lot of what’s in the grocery store. One solution is to eat whole foods, mostly vegetables, organic when possible, lots of water, exercise, sleep and do what you can to handle your stress. The recipe for a great life is pretty simple, it’s just a lot tougher when what’s thrown in your face is ad after ad of crap that’s not good for you, your kids, or anyone for that matter. I’m always here to help @teddymcdonald
Photo Credit: flickr.com/MoyanBrenn