Beware today we are in full rant mode!
According to a NYT article, 50 years ago, the sugar industry hushed up findings that excessive sugar consumption is linked to heart disease. Needless to say, the conspiracy theorists were having a field day, so it is my patriotic duty to defend the United States of America in this newsletter.
Fun facts first!
1. The feds did not say eat all you want and don’t exercise. The door to sports was left wide open, but not everyone walked through.
2. The food pyramid states eat five servings of grains, not sugar.
3. In general, the food industry makes what people want, so if everyone wanted chicken, broccoli, and rice, that’s what we would get. Evolutionary, we are trained to pig out on sugar, fat, and salt; the solution to that is free will and self control.
4. Usually, people do not build their diets according to government regulations or suggestions (case in point, smoking), but they are driven by taste, convenience, and price. From that standpoint, junk food is very hard to beat.
5. Heart disease: excessive calories are linked to heart disease; where the extra calories come from does not matter.
6. People often claim that high sugar diets result in excess fat gain because of the insulin spikes caused by sugar. The role of insulin is vastly misunderstood. Yes, carbs do cause a rise in insulin, but the insulin fairy cannot magically make you store fat. It can only store fat if… drum roll please, you ate too many calories.
7. In the long run, low carb diets do very poorly in terms of weight control or regulation compared with their low fat brethren. The reason is that the food volume is smaller and the amount of fiber consumed is lower. Both are critical for satiety whereas fat is easy to overeat.
In my humble opinion, a lot of things come down to choice. Sugar, just like cigarettes, can be harmful but nobody forced you to buy or consume.
Furthermore, in the proper dosage, everything is toxic. Drink too much water in one sitting and you will die.
As a voting, car driving, maybe even gun carrying (!!) citizen you can be expected to inform yourself before making decisions that impact your body and health.
Rant end!