| Subject: Brain & Energy Food: Sugar |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 09:52:09 03/13/04 Sat
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "Brain Food: Choline (eggs, liver, & meat)" on 08:56:04 03/13/04 Sat
Hmmm... I have a sweet tooth. In the summer, usually due to more activity, I'm underweight. In the winter, my weight is usually about normal. This winter, due to more activity I'm underweight. Yet I'm eating about twice as much as I usually do... including lots of sugar. 3 spoons in an 18 ounce cup of coffee at dawn (this morning I also added a spoon of chocolate nestle's quick to it. 2 spoons in a bowl of cerial (oatmeal or cheerios). Tons of syrup or honey on my pancakes... spilling over onto my eggs & loving it!
Lunch, usually sandwiches, sometimes even peanut butter & jelly, with apple or grape juice, finishing off with a tall glass of chocolate milk.
Dinner, no sugar, but again, either red wine, juice, or more chocolate milk afterwards, sometimes a very sweet dessert too.
At work, caffinated coke or a club's generic equivalent of red bull (caffine, B vitamins, & lots of sugar), Orange or cranberry juice... all day & night long, my glass is never empty.
At home, lots of candy, carmel, chocolate & sweets. If I run out, I know how to cook & make my own candy.
Yet I'm down to 118lbs a 5'5" tall. My doc says I either have to eat more or work less. Winters I usually weigh around 130-132 pounds (highest in January), summers around 119-128 pounds (lowest in mid-july).
Intrestingly, I don't know anybody who eats lots of sugar who is fat, but they all seem bright & quick.
My problem is just the opposite of most americans. According to new research, perhaps more sugar isn't the way for me to put on more weight, it might be just giving me more energy to burn off. Maybe I should be eating more pizza & burgers. Usually I eat the equivalent of 1 whole large pizza a week, this winter my last pizza was just after Christmas.
Anywho, here's the article:
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Food political activists are speaking out in support of the World Health Organization's new global anti-obesity initiatives, saying that its strategies are no different from guidelines other health organizations and governments have been advising for decades. Advocates have especially come out in support of WHO's sugar recommendations, which set a strict upper limit of 10 percent of calories to come from added sugars. Proponents claim the limit is the same as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid.
But that's not so. The current guide states, "Eat a diet moderate in sugar," giving no specific recommendations for amounts. It and the preponderance of nutritional research support balance, moderation and the enjoyment of a wide range of foods.
WHO's stringent limit lacks any sound scientific basis and actually runs contrary to decades of evidence and the conclusions of many of the most respected scientific organizations that sugars do not cause obesity. Nor do sugars cause any of the chronic health problems often attributed to them. WHO's recommendations are based on such flawed research that last week, 77 developing countries came out in opposition to them for promoting what they called arbitrary dietary limits without any scientific evidence.
"Sugar is not inherently a dietary villain," says David Klurfeld, professor and chairman of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Wayne State University and editor-in-chief of the Journal of American College of Nutrition and Nutrition New Focus.
Yet somehow sugars have gotten a bad rap because it's believed they offer no nutritional benefits. However, "despite having been labeled as 'empty calories,' sugars are truly important compounds," writes Anne L. Mardis in a Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion report. They're the main fuel needed by all our cells - essential for vigorous physical activity. Sugars are also brain food. Studies have shown that adults and children who ate sugar in the morning have sharper memories and better task performance.
Yes, even our "children benefit from eating some sugar," says Ellyn Satter, a childhood weight specialist and clinical therapist in Madison, Wis., and author of "Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family." "Their energy needs are high and their stomachs are small, and sugar gives them concentrated energy."
Sugar certainly doesn't make them fat, either. Multiple researchers have found that added sugars and sodas - like other high-calorie, low-nutrient dense foods - are unrelated to weight. Consumption is high among all kids. In fact, the skinniest teens actually drink the most sodas, and the fattest drink the most sugar-free ones.
We've proven that dietary restrictions don't work. The more we attempt to avoid bad foods the more we crave them. The more we try to control our eating, the more we lose touch with our natural ability to sense hunger and fullness, and the fatter we become.
Dietary ideologies have attained the status of religion. Our obsession with eating only healthy, "good" foods has itself become our country's greatest addiction, consuming part of life's joy and meaning. While too much of anything isn't healthy, there's a place even for sweets in a healthy diet. Avoiding them won't make us better people. Without balance, even the most healthful foods become unhealthful. When eating a piece of birthday cake leaves us beating ourselves up for being "bad," clearly we've lost all sense of balance.
Rather than a compassionate, health-enhancing approach, WHO's initiatives will help to spread our own unhealthy diet obsessions around the world - along with the imperious notion that there is one perfect way everyone on Earth must eat. Let's hope sound science and common sense will prevail - before sugar becomes contraband and birthday cakes outlawed everywhere.
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