Sugar

The list of negative effects that sugar has on our health is long and growing longer. Diseases such as heart disease, type II diabetes, obesity, and hypertension headline the list, and the mortal consequences of these seem dire enough to dissuade anyone from consuming sugar in an unchecked manner. However, the list isnt done. Other frightening diseases such as ubiquitous cancers, along with dementia, depression and addiction make sugars reputation as a fun, pleasurable, taste bud reward is starkly overshadowed by serious ramifications. In tracking my sugar consumption for two days, along with researching its impacts and seriously evaluating what it is doing to my body, has been a needed reality check. My cost/benefit analysis leads to what I hope to be real change. The recommended guideline suggested by the AHA for a male is 150 calories per day from sugar. My first day totals far exceeded that with 420 calories. My second day totals were less with 288 calories but still nearly double. Clearly, the calories I am getting from sugar are unhealthy. Studies that I have found as I have been writing this paper are eye opening. For me, its not just the fear drummed up in the facts, numbers and disease names. I feel, all day long, what my unbalanced diet is doing to me. The peaks and valleys of sugars rollercoaster ride fatigue me, constantly affecting my mood and energy. Weighing that with ailments Ive dealt with and am dealing with in life, mixed with known and unknown diseases in my family pedigree, have me wanting change. My diet is carbohydrate heavy and full of processed foods. Much of it is loaded with high fructose corn syrup and other added sugars. I am aware how sugars can cause weight gain and the subsequent cardiovascular problems that come with that. Something new I learned, that could cause me issues, comes from research by Kimber Stanhope at U.C. Davis. Her studies show diets high in added sugar and high fructose corn syrup increase the levels of Small Dense LDL in the blood which causes plaque buildup and other cardiovascular disease issues which, in turn, lead to heart attack (Stanhope). It had me flashing back to my grandfather recovering at my house from bypass surgery when I was a child and learning he had his first heart attack when he was 4 years older than I am now. Dr. Lewis Cantley has also done research that has me thinking about other hereditary

diseases in my family. His studies on how sugar fuels the growth of types of cancer tumors. Having lost my aunt to colon cancer two years ago is a red flag of what sugar could potentially help grow inside me . As a student whos older than my peers and working toward a career change, my memory, energy levels, mental and physical health are things I need to keep up to compete. Sugars ability to hinder me in many different ways has me feeling that my personal diet is taking me one step forward and two steps back. As a student, professional, and physically active person, going backward on all these critical levels from sugar is something I hope to prevent. That leads me to the good news I take away from this. Its a hopeful stat from Robert Lustigs presentation which is 75% of these possible problems can be preventable (Lustig). That is something I can control in the future.

Citations

Stanhope, Kimber, and Kimber Stanhope. "Consumption of Fructose and High Fructose Corn Syrup Increase Postprandial Triglycerides, LDL-Cholesteruol, and Apolipoprotein-B in Young Men and Women." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. vol. 96 no. 10 E1596-E1605. (2011): n. page. Web. 26 Oct. 2013. <http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/96/10/E1596.long>.

Cantley, L.C, Curr Biol, 2009, 19(14),R5401, view in PubMed

Lustig, Robert, perf. Sugar: The bitter truth. University of California Television, 2009. Film. 26 Oct 2013. <http://www.uctv.tv/skinny-on-obesity>.