Sugar was the cause of aging

Sugar is not accidentally called a sweet death: its excessive consumption leads at least to the deposition of fat in the body and accelerates the aging process. Doctors have long urged people to limit their consumption of simple sugars, but de facto they are almost everywhere: to enhance the taste of products, manufacturers sweeten even frozen vegetables and sour-milk products.

Of course, it is most effective to fight the passion for sweets from childhood. And in the United States decided to limit the sugar content in school lunches. This is provided for by federal regulations that establish new nutritional standards for children. In this way, the authorities hope to reverse the damage caused by the sugar industry over several decades.

Harmful dinners

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced new rules governing school meals. They involve reducing added sugars to less than 10% of total weekly calories. This target should be reached by the beginning of the 2027 school year. According to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), by 2022, more than 90% of school breakfasts and almost 70% of lunches will contain at least 10% added sugar.

Highlandernews cites poor current school meal guidelines, coupled with tight school budgets, as one of the key reasons for the rise in obesity among American schoolchildren, with the number of overweight people in this age category having tripled in the last 50 years. Since the middle of the last century, sugar addiction has actually been imposed on schoolchildren. For example, in the 1960s, one review argued that fat rather than sugar in food leads to heart disease. However, this study was funded by the sugar industry, which the authors were silent about. Such publications, combined with the active work of the sugar lobby, have led to the fact that the current nutritional standards strictly regulate the content of fats, but do not pay attention to the sugar problem.

For Russia, the issue of excessive sugar consumption is no less relevant. According to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, today almost every fifth Russian schoolchild (19%) is overweight – this is a sixfold (!) Increase compared to 2000. Rospotrebnadzor a few years ago pointed out the problem of obesity in children associated with the consumption of sugar – in confectionery, sugary carbonated drinks, breakfast cereals and other products. The department emphasized that the consumption of added sugar in children should not exceed 10% of the daily caloric intake.

To evaluate school breakfasts and lunches, the Ministry of Education even created the Federal Center for Monitoring Student Nutrition. This year, 70 billion rubles were allocated to improve the quality of the diet of the regions.

“The burden of the problem of obesity and related diseases is one of the most urgent problems of the healthcare system,” said Pavel Bogomolov, chief hepatologist at the Ministry of Health of the Moscow Region. “From the point of view of a hepatologist, the severity of the problem is impressive: more than 27% of the adult population in industrialized countries suffer from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This is the most common liver disease and can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. But the leading causes of death in patients with fatty liver disease are heart attacks/strokes and malignancies. Therefore, adequate treatment of this disease can positively affect mortality from these common diseases. And the most relevant area of ​​prevention and treatment is lifestyle modification and diet. In this regard, proposals for modifying school meals seem to be very reasonable. I hope there will be similar proposals for adults, as this is one of the most effective, reliable and safe evidence-based interventions for obese patients to date: a 10% reduction in body weight is guaranteed to improve the course of numerous diseases associated with obesity. The next step is to “immerse” fitness into the program for the treatment of obese patients and related diseases (type II diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, etc.) at the expense of compulsory health insurance.”

6 teaspoons of sugar per day

Excessive consumption of sugar leads not only to weight gain, but also creates a load on the pancreas, worsens the condition of the skin and teeth.

The main harm of excessive consumption of sugars is that they trigger the process of glycation in the body – the destruction of proteins under the influence of glucose. Protein glycation, as scientists have established today, underlies the aging of the body and the development of chronic diseases. In addition, with an increase in the values ​​of glycated hemoglobin in the blood, glucose begins to act as an acid – it simply burns out the vessels, which is fraught with atherosclerotic plaques.

Meanwhile, today sugar is present in almost any food product – even an apple, even a carrot, even wheat, even legumes, even milk … This is just one of the carbohydrates that, as you know, are our main sources of energy (they account for up to 60% of all human energy consumption) and which are vital for us. Carbohydrates are part of our cells, are involved in metabolism, the synthesis of hormones and enzymes, protect joints and perform many more useful functions for the body. According to nutritionists, the need for carbohydrates is determined by the state of human health, physical activity and psychophysiological characteristics. During the processes occurring in the body, all types of carbohydrates, with the exception of dietary fiber, are ultimately converted into glucose. It ensures the vital activity of the cells of human tissues and organs – especially the brain, heart and muscles. For the normal functioning of the body of an adult, from 4 to 8 g of carbohydrates per 1 kg of body weight are needed daily. In addition, a person weighing 70–80 kg needs about 500 g of glycogen, into which glucose is converted. The average person needs 185 g of glucose daily. It is needed for the brain to work (it only absorbs glucose!), to support muscle tissue. With physical and mental stress, the need for glucose increases. And it decreases with a sedentary lifestyle and low mental activity.

Following the standard recommended diet (2500 calories), we get about 140 g of sugars per day. These sugars include 80 g of natural sugars that come with milk, fruits, vegetables, juice, legumes, and 60 g of added sugar: from bakery and confectionery products, which we add to tea and coffee or various dishes when they are prepared. This amount of added sugar in the diet is in line with generally accepted global recommendations that calories from added sugars should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. These are the recommendations of both the WHO and the Russian Rospotrebnadzor. Of total calories consumed, that’s about 25 grams (6 teaspoons) of sugar per day for an adult with a normal body mass index.

HOW TO OVERCOME SUGAR ADDICTION

Avoid foods with hidden sugar, such as frozen french fries, convenience foods, and canned foods.

Choose dairy products with a minimum amount of sugar. For example, today there are yogurts, curds and fermented milk products, in which there are only 4–7 g of sugar per 100 g.

Fruits are much healthier than vegetables, according to recent scientific studies. And fruits are better to choose sour and green.

Do not abuse dried fruits – they contain a little less sugar than some confectionery products.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29063 dated July 5, 2023

Newspaper headline:
6 spoons of sweet life