1. Where is sugar?

2. What does sugar do to us?

3. What does the food industry (or we) need to do about sugar?

1. Where is sugar?

A 750 ml bottle of Coke has 80 grams of sugar. That‘s 26 packets of sugar (at 3 grams per packet).

Imagine putting 26 packets of sugar in your coffee. That‘s 39 sugar cubes.

Or putting that much sugar on some healthy berries.

Of course that would be absurd. And so you say to yourself:

“My family and I are ok. We don‘t do that.“

A 750 ml glass of store-bought orange juice (or any juice) has 72 grams of sugar. That‘s 24 sugar packets. About the same as is in that Coke.

This little, tiny, 100 ml plastic container of Actimel has 11 grams of sugar. That‘s almost 4 sugar packets.

A bowl of Special K or Fitness or Muesli will pump 18 grams of sugar into you. 6 sugar packets.

Those low fat, bio or organic (or whatever) yogurts have 13 grams of sugar. Almost 5 sugar packets in this small container.

Two tablespoons of Nutella or jam is equal to 21 grams of sugar. 7 sugar packets. And that bread has the same effect on your body as sugar.

Depending on the brand, a 500 gram jar of pasta sauce can have upwards of 30 grams of sugar or more. 10 sugar packets.

How many of us add several sugar packets worth of ketchup to so many of our meals?

And let’s try and understand why fast

food is so amazingly addictive.

Let’s start small with the McDonald’s dipping sauce. That tiny packet of BBQ sauce has 10 grams of sugar. That’s 3 sugar packets.

And how about the burgers? That Big Mac also has 10 grams of sugar. 3 more packets.

That large Coke from McDonald’s is 500 ml, so 55 grams of sugar – or 18 sugar packets. And those refills...

In addition to containing some very questionable ingredients, there is also dextrose – which is a sugar.

The apple pie has about 15 grams of sugar. 5 packets.

100 grams of sugar without the Coke refill. 155 with the refill. 155 grams = 51 sugar packets.

Food images category 1

Food images category 2

All those foods in category 1 are what I call brain food.

When you eat sugar it triggers the production of your brain's natural opiates, or morphine-like compounds. Those feel good chemicals are a key ingredient in the addiction process.

In a famous study out of France some years back, 94% of rats chose sugar over cocaine.

So in looking at those images in category one, having been conditioned to associate those foods with tremendous pleasure, your brain knows what is coming if you eat them.

Now those pictures from category 2 show foods that do not have this effect on the mind and body. Truly healthy foods have a very different effect on your mind and body.

99% of us don’t go without sugar for any length of time ever. So we don’t go through withdrawal. But if you really quit cold turkey, you would feel it.

Your food addictions are sugar addictions.

Here is a sure fire way to prove the point: Watch a child drink water during a meal versus a child drinking a sugary drink.

2. What does sugar do to us?

Majority of foods you buy in supermarkets today are engineered to: • Keep us coming

back to them.

• Get us to eat way more than we need to.

• Sugar is in 74% of processed foods

• Under more than 60 different names

Daily recommendations from leading physicians who believe in the concept of preventive medicine: • 0 to 25 grams

72 grams

27 grams

21 grams

26 grams

64 grams

45 grams

155 grams.

Daily intake: USA: 120 grams

Germany: 100 grams

Saudi Arabia: 90 grams

Not just the obvious sugars, but lots of other foods – mainly grain-based ones. These go to work on your body in a very similar manner to those straight sugars.

Breads, pastas, rice, etc. will all drive up your blood glucose levels to unhealthy elevations. And keep them there for a sustained period. Carbohydrates are organic compounds that contain sugar units, and sugar is a carbohydrate.

Overweight and obesity

Excess sugar becomes metabolized into body fat. A little (very very little) cheating is no problem. But we are eating these foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner – and snacks.

In the UAE, 66% of men and 60% of women are overweight. That is well over the global average.

Worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980.

In 2014, more than 1.9 billion

adults were overweight. Of these over 600 million were obese.

42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2013.

Type 2 diabetes

When you eat food and your blood sugar level rises, insulin is released from the pancreas to help those cells absorb the sugar.

If you consume a diet consistently high in sugar and grains, your blood glucose levels will be chronically elevated. • The pancreas becomes

overworked and even damaged

• The body becomes desensitized to insulin

The end result is insulin resistance, and eventually full-blown diabetes. Officially 20% of people in the UAE have type 2 diabetes.

Note that from 1990 to 2013 rate doubled.

Cancer

A key link between sugar and cancer has to do with sugar being a bad fuel for the body. • This generates far more

free radicals.

• Which in turn causes DNA damage as well as cell membrane and protein impairment.

• Sugar is a fuel source for existing cancers.

• Sugar is a primary factor in the initiation of cancerous characteristics in previously healthy cells.

We have a whole class of “obesity related” cancers, including colon, rectum, ovary, and womb.

8.2 million people die each year from cancer.

By 2025, 19 million new cases are expected to be diagnosed

each year.

(14 million were diagnosed in 2012.)

A 70% increase in new cancer cases is expected over the next 2 decades.

Cancer is the third biggest

killer in the UAE…

…where again, 66% of men and 60% of women are

overweight.

Heart disease

850 heart-attack patients were admitted to Rashid Hospital in Dubai in 2013. • Global average for first-

time heart attack victims is 65 years of age.

• Average age of the Rashid Hospital patients was 45 years.

According to a JAMA study carried out on 40,000 people: • Those with the highest

sugar intake had a four-fold increase in their risk of heart attacks.

Those sugary and grain-based foods contribute to: • Overweight and obesity

• High blood pressure

• Insulin resistance

• Diabetes

• High triglycerides

• Low HDL (good) cholesterol

• High LDL (bad) cholesterol Which all lead to heart disease.

17.5 million people die each year from cardiovascular

disease.

Cardiovascular disease deaths are up 41% around

the world since 1990.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the

UAE.

It accounts for almost a quarter of all deaths.

• Alzheimer’s

• Liver disease

• Autoimmune

• Others

3. What does the food industry (or what do all of us) need to do about sugar?

I seriously do not know.

But look at our food stores

Remember:

74% of processed foods contain sugar

And look at our restaurants

Cheesecake Factory

Butcher Shop & Grill

IHOP

Pizza Express

Indian Food

Middle Eastern Food

Mall

Airplane

Movie Theater

Vending Machines

We are not supposed to be eating any of this stuff.

Ever.

And yes, I know there are healthy options on the

menu…

And that is where it all gets complicated when talking

about a solution.

Because within the existing framework we cannot have a solution.

We can suggest more: • Healthy food stores

• Healthy restaurants

• Healthy catering

companies But would it really make a difference?

I can only think of one solution.

The food industry must, at the country level, be regulated by a ministry or a body made up of doctors and nutritionists who are entirely independent of the food industry and big business.

If we leave it to the food industry or

existing bodies, we get the following:

New York’s Sugary Drinks Portion Cap Rule:

Under the plan, all restaurants, fast-

food establishments, delis, movie theatres, sports stadiums and food carts would be barred from selling

sugar-sweetened drinks in cups larger than 16 ounces (0.5 litres).

It didn’t pass, but even if it did, guess what?

0.5 litres = 55 grams of sugar.

Mondelez: $30B annual revenue.

These brands here represent 60% of revenue in 2014 and are the fastest growers.

And the healthy alternative recently being pushed by Mondelez is this: • Grain-based

product.

• 10 grams of sugar per recommended serving.

Again, we are not supposed to be eating any

of this stuff ever.

So if the argument is within that framework, I give up. Because we will be arguing about how much less bad stuff we should eat, not how to get rid of the bad stuff.

5 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

ONE: We have turned eating into way too pleasurable a thing.

Because we are eating for

our brain not our body.

TWO:

If all of these bad foods were made illegal and replaced only with healthy, natural foods, you would eat much much much

less.

And the food industry would be a fraction of the size it is today.

THREE:

From a 2013 Credit Suisse Report:

“30% – 40% of healthcare expenditures in the US go to help address issues that are closely tied to

the excess consumption of sugar.”

That amounts to 1 trillion dollars in health spend due to the sugar habit.

FOUR:

KFC donates to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.

But only if you drink 100+ grams of sugar.

FIVE: INFORM YOURSELVES

WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE:

“Sugar: The Bitter Truth”, by Dr. Robert Lustig

READ: “Pure, White and Deadly” by John Yudkin.

VISIT:

www.sugarscience.org www.intelligenthealth.ae/hic