The Sugar Death Trap – Sugar Kills!

I’ve written many times about the addictive nature of sugar and the health risks it creates. But did you know sugar can quite literally kill you?

I have to admit, even my skeptical nature was shocked when I read a study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that solidly links sugar consumption to the risk of death from heart disease.

Now you all know that JAMA is a mainstay of the medical establishment and the authors of the study, the staid Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emory University and Harvard are just as much a part of the medical establishment. I’m only making this point because the mainstream medical propensity of these institutions makes the data even more disturbing. It’s not fringe. It’s here and now.

So without any further ado, here are some of the scariest high points of the study:

1.  American adults consume a 14.9% of daily calories from sugar.

2.  Most adults (71%) get 10% or more of their daily calories form added sugar (not just sugar already present in food).

3.  About 10% of us get 25% or more of total calories from sugar.

4.  The most common sources of added sugar are sugar-sweetened beverages (primarily soft drinks), juices, grains-based desserts, dairy desserts and candy.

NOW HERE’S THE CLINCHER:

Those who get 21% or more of their daily calories from sugar are twice as likely to die of heart disease as those who get 7% or less of their calories from sugar.

AND ANOTHER CLINCHER:

Those who drank a soft drink a day – at just 140 calories — had the highest risk of dying from heart disease.

While there is no standardized recommendation on sugar consumption, there are a few wildly varying benchmarks. The Institute of Medicine says added sugar should make up less than 25% of calories, while World Health Organization recommends less than 10 percent and the American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars to less than 100 calories daily for women and 150 calories daily for men.

The study analyzed government data on diet and mortality outcomes over a period of several years.

It doesn’t even cover how sugar is marketed to us at every turn.

Now this doesn’t mean you can’t have a piece of birthday cake or an ice cream cone now and again, but consistent high sugar intake is deadly. There is no denying it.

So here’s the take home, my friends: Sugar is addictive. It causes diabetes, obesity and death.

Stop. Please stop.