15 Not So Sweet Facts About Sugar

Before we get started, I'd like to mention that much of the information you'll see here, as well as all the quotes, came from the outstanding author Gary Taubes, and his book "The Case Against Sugar". All quotes in this article are directly from his book which I highly recommend to all my Members, and especially diabetics and pre-diabetics. 

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1. Two hundred Years Ago...

​the average American only ate 2 pounds of sugar a year.
In 1970, we ate 123 pounds of sugar per year.
​Today, the average American consumes almost 152 pounds of sugar in one year. This is equal to 3 pounds (or 6 cups) of sugar consumed in one week! 

2. ​Some Nutritionists even suggest...

that Americans should get 10% of their calories from sugar. This equals 13.3 teaspoons  (or 53.2grams) of sugar per day (which is 2x more than what the AHA recommends). The current average is 42.5 teaspoons (or 170grams) of sugar per day! (credit to DHHS)

​3. One teaspoon of granulated sugar

equals four grams of sugar. 
As an example, Yoplait has 26grams of sugar in one container, (or 6-7 teaspoons), which is 100% of what the American Heart Association says you should have in an entire day.

4. “Fifty years ago...

 1 in 8 American adults was obese, today the number is greater than 1 in 3.” 

5. “In 1978...

Kelly West, the leading American authority on diabetes epidemiology- suggested that diabetes had already killed more people in the 20th century than all wars combined.” 

6. “In the Sugar Commission’s 1986 report...

Mr. Glinsmann and his colleagues estimate of the levels of which sugar was currently consumed to be 42lbs of sugar per person per year, or the equivalent everyday of 1 1/2 cans of Coke or Pepsi.” 

7. “By 1999 we were... 

now eating and/or drinking 2-3 times the dose of sucrose and HFCS that the FDA had officially found safe just 13 years earlier.” 

8. “6 in every 10...

 lower-limb amputations in adults are due to diabetes- some 73,000 of them in 2010 alone.”  

9. “Almost 2 million Americans were

 diagnosed with diabetes in 2012- that’s one case every 15-16 seconds.” 

10. “In 2012, one in every...

 seven to eight adults in this country had diabetes- 12 to 14 percent, depending on the criteria used to diagnose it. Another 30 percent are predicted to get diabetes at some point during their lives.”

11.  “As of 2014, the average American 

consumed 67lbs of sucrose and HFCS out of the 114lbs the industry made available- slightly less than 60%.” 

12.“The World Health Organization...

reports that obesity rates have doubled worldwide since 1980; in 2014, more than half a billion adults on the planet were obese, and more than forty million children under the age of five were overweight or obese.” 

13. “Today 1 in every 10 adolescence...

is thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, as are estimated 75 million adults, perhaps, not coincidentally, the same number as our estimated to have metabolic syndrome. The condition has now been diagnosed in infants.” 

14. “Among U.S. military veterans...

1 in every 4 patients admitted to VA hospitals suffers from diabetes.” 

15. “The National Institute of Health...

estimate that as many in 1 in 4 Americans now have fatty liver disease, unrelated to alcohol consumption…”

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