Is Sugar the New Tobacco?

“Sugar is the new heroin.”

– Tom Jacobs

In life, we all make choices. Some of them are good and some of them are pretty stupid; but they should be ours to make. Today, in the world of processed food, sugar is a choice that someone else made for us. It’s hidden in processed foods from meats to coleslaw; it’s mixed into our table salt. Even if you make a conscious decision to avoid the stuff, you’re going to have a helluva time doing it.

Until 1913 Bayer was one of the biggest heroin pushers in America. Of course, it wasn’t sold to us as a street drug then. It was touted as a universal panacea for everything from toothaches in babies to tonics for the elderly. The buying public was the pharmaceutical industry’s trusting dupe. I predict that the day will come when Coca Cola and General Mills are revealed to be the top drug dealers of all time. Research has shown that sugar is an addictive substance and science knows how dangerous overindulgence in sweets can be. Obesity is overtaking cigarettes as a health hazard for people of all ages. However, due to relentless brainwashing by processed food manufacturers and their lobbyists, the general public is lagging a bit behind on the information train. If you want to make informed choices, here are some things you should know.

Why is sugar so freakin’ bad for you? Actually, the natural sugar that occurs in whole foods isn’t. The negative health effects we are experiencing now are due to the massive amount of added sugar in the Western diet. Too much sugar can cause everything from obesity and diabetes to cancer and heart disease. It’s very much like alcohol — a little can be beneficial, but a lot can turn you into a drunk who ends up living in a van down by the river.

How much is too much? The FDA doesn’t make this easy to figure out. Unlike salt and fats that are added to foods, nutritional labels don’t provide the daily recommendations for added sugar; they make you guess. Healthy limits range around 5 to 6 teaspoons (25-30g) a day for women, 6 to 9 teaspoons (30-45g) for men and 3 to 6 teaspoons (15-30g) for children.

The average American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, about three times more than we need; and that’s on a good day. It’s a little too easy to eat that much in a single meal or snack. A 12 ounce can of cola can have 11 teaspoons of added sugar, your “all natural” breakfast bar with fruit and whole grains can have 15g and one good sized dollop of barbecue sauce has a whopping 16g.

Ingredient labels are deliberately misleading. Just because you don’t see the word “sugar” doesn’t mean there’s none in there. Manufacturers have at least 61 different names for sugar. Many are identifiable by the suffix “ose”: sucrose, fructose, dextrose, lactose and maltose; but barley malt, corn syrup and black strap molasses are all sugar too.

Want to avoid the stuff by eating healthy? The whole foods market doesn’t make it any easier. “Natural” is a meaningless word thrown up like a smoke screen to hide refined sweeteners at every turn. Granola bars, flavored yogurts, snacks and cereals often contain as much sugar as a Snickers bar. And that pricey agave syrup you’re buying because you think it’s better for you? It’s 85% fructose. Speaking of which …

What’s the big deal with high-fructose corn syrup? Fructose is a naturally occurring sugar. It seems like it should be OK. And if you’re eating whole fruit, it is. There, it is bound with fiber, which slows its rate of absorption and enables distribution. In the form of syrups and concentrates, however, the nature of fructose changes, just like grape juice does when it’s refined into alcohol. Unlike glucose, which is a naturally occurring sugar that can be metabolized and used by nearly every cell in the body, fructose is metabolized almost entirely in the liver. There, it gets instantly turned into fat.

The epidemic of obesity has risen directly in parallel with the influx of soft drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup. Added fructose has also been implicated as a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Those Kool-Aid commercials with the reassuring mom explaining how high fructose syrup is fine because it’s made from corn? That’s big business bullshitting you all the way to the bank.

Why do we crave sugar? Research has shown that high-sugar foods create the same changes in the dopamine receptors as alcohol and other addictive drugs. In fact, lab rats found Oreos to be even more addictive than cocaine. This explains why some people can’t resist chocolate any more than a junkie can resist smack. Sugar is the drug of choice for millions of people because it is not only socially acceptable, it’s pretty damn cheap. And food stamps cover it.

Sugar Blues In addition to making you fat and sick, sugar messes with your head. Moodiness, anxiety and depression can all be caused by excessive sugar consumption.You feel euphoric when your blood sugar goes up; you feel like dog waste when it drops. What will get it up again? More sugar. And if you try to quit cold turkey? Welcome to one of the worst headaches of your life.

I learned from a guy who was a drug advocate in the NY state courts that all drugs have the same approximate effect: They elevate the blood sugar and produce optimum effect for about 20 minutes. Then blood sugar drops and you need more drugs to feel right again. It’s no wonder sugar can cause people to lose control over their consumption.

So, why is sugar not only available, but pushed in our faces for every conceivable holiday and celebration? Birthday cakes, Christmas cookies, Easter and Halloween candy are plastered on the cover of every magazine and heralded in song like the second coming of Christ. It’s even handed to kids as a reward at the doctor’s office.

If you want to find the answer, all you have to do is follow the money. Sugar is a HUGE source of revenue, and the government guards those profits with diligence. Take a look at government agricultural subsidies. Nutrition guidelines may recommend a diet full of fruits and vegetables, but less than half a percent of agricultural funding goes toward growing these healthy foods. More than 50% of subsidies go to growing soybeans and corn, most of which is refined into sugar or directed to the meat industry. By funding these crops, the US government is actively supporting a diet heavy in high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil and grain-fed cattle – all of which are now well-known contributors to obesity and chronic disease. The anti-obesity campaigns that the government launches are perfunctory and ineffectual smoke screens that do little to combat the problems created by its own agricultural policies.

The decision to eat sugar should be up to you, not something you are tricked into. You’ve got the story. Now the choice is up to you. Please, choose wisely.