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Key insights from
The Case Against Sugar
By
Gary Taubes
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What you'll learn
Sweets are loaded with sugar—that’s what makes them sweet.
Everyone knows that. What isn’t as widely known is that other foods come
packed with sugar, too. From snack foods to condiments, and from
microwavable meals to breakfast bars, sugar has a presence in almost
everything we consume. There was a time when sugar used to be a luxury
reserved for only the wealthy and powerful, but it has since become
ubiquitous, finding its way into so much of our food that it’s practically
unavoidable. What brought us to this point of sugar saturation, and what
does it mean for our bodies? This book aims to answer those questions.
Read on for several key insights from The Case Against Sugar.
Read on for key insights from The Case Against Sugar.
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1. Sugar used to
be rare and expensive, and was even traded among royals as a gift.
Sugar has a long history that originates on the island of
New Guinea. The natives there were the first to plant and harvest
sugarcane.
Over time, the cultivation and harvesting of sugarcane
spread to other regions and became popular. The problem was cost—harvesting
sugar took too much time, money and energy. Further compounding the issue
was the fact that sugarcane plants can only thrive in warm, tropical
climates. Exporting the product added another expense that priced sugar out
of the market. Consequently, sugar was unavailable to most people; they
simply couldn’t afford it. Only the wealthiest people enjoyed this sweet
commodity. In fact, it was so rare and valuable that it was even exchanged
as a gift among royals.
But, as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of
invention. The desire and demand for affordable sugar distribution spawned
new methods of production.
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2. As mass
production became possible, sugar quickly became a staple of the American
diet.
While sugarcane is limited to warm, tropical climates, sugar
beets are not. You can plant and harvest them practically anywhere. Once it
was discovered that sugar beets could, if properly cultivated and
harvested, produce sugar, the game changed for good.
Technological advancements took sugar production to the next
level, too. The invention of the steam engine—and the Industrial Revolution
that followed—resulted in factories with exponentially increased output. By
the early to mid-twentieth century, quantities of sugar that used to take
years to produce could be churned out in the course of a single day.
Now that sugar was able to be mass produced by affordable
methods, it was positioned to become a staple of the American diet.
Previously, sugar consumption was limited to certain types of drinks and
food, like coffee or tea. But after the Industrial Revolution, sugar found
its way into all kinds of foods, and sweetened candies and ice cream became
more popular and widely distributed. Sugar even became an ingredient in
foods that had never previously contained it. For example, bread was being
sweetened to improve its taste.
Of course, no story of sugar’s past would be complete
without mention of Coca-Cola. This drink was invented just before the turn
of the century, back in 1895. In the years that followed, the Coca-Cola
formula evolved to include refined sugar, and soda—the sugary soft drink
loved all over the world—was born.
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3. Despite popular
misconceptions, some calories are worse for you than others.
We often count calories to prevent overeating and weight
gain, but it’s not just the quantity of calories that matters—the quality
matters, too. The assumption that all calories are equal is false—and for
that reason, dangerous. With advances in nutritional science, we can no
longer be excused for believing these old, disproven misconceptions.
Unfortunately, the sugar industry has, at times, taken
advantage of popular misconceptions and touted their food products as being
low in calories, despite containing high amounts of sugar. This has
encouraged people to consume sugary foods without fearing weight gain or
other negative health effects.
In the past few decades, critical discoveries have been made
that have shed light on the differences between the calories we consume.
We’ve learned that the body responds differently to foods that are high in
carbohydrates or sugar. When we consume these foods, our blood sugar rises.
When our blood sugar rises, a hormone called insulin is produced in greater
amounts. And insulin—unlike most other hormones—does not burn or extract
energy from fat cells. Rather, it causes more fat cell storage. When blood
sugar levels rise, the body stores more fat, and it will continue to store
more fat until blood sugar levels return to normal.
Ultimately, sugary foods and drinks cause weight gain. We
don’t have to eliminate them entirely from our diets, but we should
seriously limit them.
Despite popular misconceptions, obesity is not primarily
caused by high calorie counts (although that is a factor). It is driven,
instead, by the consumption of poor quality calories that result in more
fat storage.
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4. Sugar has been
dishonestly promoted as healthy, and competition has been stifled.
Since there’s big money to be made from sugar, there’s
always been motivation to portray it in the best light. Back in 1928, the
sugar industry began promoting sugar as a healthy part of a normal diet
through an entity called the Sugar Institute. The goal was to increase
consumer demand for sugar. Several marketing messages were included in this
campaign, including the suggestion that sugar improves the immune system
and revitalizes the body. These messages had a tremendous impact.
By the middle of the twentieth century, the American diet
had changed dramatically and obesity rates were on the rise. It was also
around this time that people began to believe—erroneously—that all calories
were equal. With that belief in mind, why would anyone cut sugar from their
diet? If calorie reduction became necessary, why not cut out the
bad-tasting calories and keep the good-tasting ones?
In the 1960s, sugar substitutes hit the shelves and grew
rapidly in popularity. This new competition was met with fierce opposition
from the sugar industry. People wanted sugar substitutes because they were
low in calories—diet sodas, for example, were consumed with the hope of
shedding weight. The sugar industry countered this demand by making the
case that artificial sweeteners containing saccharin and cyclamate were
cancer-causing agents. On that basis, they lobbied to get these substances
banned by the Food and Drug Administration. Millions were spent on this
project, and the result was a ban on cyclamate; it was deemed unsafe for
consumption. Notably, the amount of cyclamate that must be consumed in
order for it to be dangerous is incredibly high, but the sugar industry
succeeded in getting it removed from the marketplace.
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5. We’ve been lied
to about the dangers of fatty foods so that we’ll fear them more than
sugar.
Myths and rumors abound when it comes to nutrition and our
health. One popular misconception is the idea that heart disease is
directly tied to saturated fat consumption. This isn’t necessarily true, so
why do so many people believe it?
As the rate of heart disease diagnoses increased in the
twentieth century, the medical community was seeking answers. Ancel Keys, a
scientist, suggested that heart disease was linked to the consumption of
fatty foods. This theory gained acceptance because it seemed sensible. But
if we delve a little deeper, we learn that Keys’ research was funded by the
sugar industry. It also turns out that he was the creator of a sugary food
packet called K-Rations, which was used by the U.S. military. In other
words, he had a motive for making other foods look bad so sugar would look
good by comparison.
All through the 1970s and into the 1980s, fat was considered
the real health danger linked to heart disease. Anyone who suggested sugar
was the culprit faced ridicule from the sugar industry. However, evidence
against sugar was mounting. As sugar consumption increased, health was
deteriorating. Obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure were all on the
rise. It became clear to many scientists that sugar was not some innocuous
substance, but the primary source of all these major health problems.
Concurrently, it was becoming clear that fat was not as bad as everybody
thought. Having a high-fat diet did not necessarily mean one was unhealthy.
Disease was being linked in increasing numbers not to fatty diets, but
sugary diets.
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6. Excessive sugar
consumption can cause insulin resistance, which leads to diabetes.
Sugar consumption has been linked to a number of diseases,
but none more clearly than diabetes. To understand why, consider what
happens internally when you consume sugary foods or drinks. As explained
earlier, the glucose in sugary foods and drinks causes blood sugar levels
to rise. The body has to regulate this change, so the pancreas produces
insulin. The purpose of the insulin production is to find a use for the
glucose—it will either be burned for energy, or stored as fat for later.
When sugar levels come back down, the stored fat can be used as an energy
repository.
When a person develops insulin resistance, they end up with
a problem. The glucose in their blood cannot be regulated. The body needs
to produce more insulin to deal with the rising blood sugar by either
burning it or storing it, but the insulin is no longer effective in that
role.
It is now widely believed that sugar is to blame for insulin
resistance. Studies have shown a direct correlation between sugar
consumption and insulin resistance.
The inability of the body to deal with high blood sugar
levels is not the only problem that stems from insulin resistance. Another
problem is metabolic syndrome, which can lead to heart disease or diabetes.
A symptom of metabolic syndrome is weight gain around the mid-section. The
cause of it, however, is a perfect storm of obesity, high blood pressure
and inflammation all affecting the body simultaneously. All of these issues
are linked directly to the consumption of too much sugar.
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7. The maladies of
people who consume too much sugar should serve as a stark warning.
A prime example of the disastrous effects of sugar can be
found on the island of Tokelau, off the coast of New Zealand. A few years
ago, a study was done that found the diabetes rate on this small island was
off the charts—an astonishing 38 percent of the population had been
diagnosed as diabetic.
The sharp increase in diabetes diagnoses was a new problem,
and it stemmed from a change in diet. Prior to the 1980s, the people of
Tokelau had been eating a diet that consisted of fish, coconut, pork,
chicken and breadfruit. Fat was a good portion of their diet (50 percent),
while sugar was scarcely included at all (around 2 percent). A very small
percentage of the people were diabetic. Among the men, only 3 percent were
diabetic.
However, in the early 1980s, the people of Tokelau gained
access to New Zealand’s mainland and their diet changed dramatically.
Sugary foods were introduced to their diet and they began to suffer from
weight gain, diabetes, and a host of other health issues they’d never
experienced before. Their physical maladies proved the point that sugary
calories were not just like other calories—they were extremely harmful.
Studies have also shown that people with insulin resistance
(caused by too much sugar consumption) have a higher risk of developing
cancer. Recent support for this link can be found in a study out of
Scotland, where diabetics were treated with a drug that helped to regulate
insulin levels and reduce resistance. The study showed that diabetics with
insulin-regulating medication were much less like likely to develop cancer.
Sugar is hard to resist, but a healthy lifestyle demands
that we limit our intake.
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Endnotes
These insights are
just an introduction. If you're ready to dive deeper, pick up a copy of The Case
Against Sugar here. And since we get a commission on
every sale, your purchase will help keep this newsletter free.
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