Though its negative impacts are known, sugar is still the is the most common sweetener in the world. The Institute For Integrative Nutrition, the largest online nutrition school, is working to change that with a new nonprofit organization dedicated to championing sugar education — one of the most important yet underfunded areas of the nutrition world.
Today, one of our greatest health problems as Americans is overeating, as people are consuming too many calories from low-quality food. Overeating, as well as obesity and inflammation-related diseases like high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, is associated with chronically elevated leptin levels. Leptin, the hormone which tells your body when you’ve had enough to eat, may also have an interesting link to obesity.
In people who develop leptin resistance, this "I'm full" signal is never received, presenting a major obstacle for weight control. A few studies raise the possibility that leptin resistance may be a side effect of obesity, not a contributing cause. Furthermore, research suggests that over-consumption of fructose, also known as high-fructose corn syrup, commonly found in soda, can directly lead to higher-than-normal levels of leptin and reduce your body's sensitivity to the hormone.
Health experts have been sounding the alarm about the dangers of too much sugar for a long time. In 1957, John Yudkin, a professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, argued that the primary culprit of heart disease and other chronic ailments was sugar. Decades later, his claims were buried after a landmark study by a team of Harvard scientists pointed to fat as the primary dietary risk factor for heart disease. According to a JAMA Internal Medicine report, which summarized an analysis of historical industry documents, it turns out that the sugar industry deliberately engineered that groundbreaking Harvard study, compensating the scientists for their efforts that essentially let sugar off the hook.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggest Americans cap sugar consumption at 50 grams a day, which is about four tablespoons, or a little more sugar than is in a can of coke. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests even less than that, no more than half a can of coke.
Yet the average American, trained to be wary of fat, consumes up to 22 teaspoons of sugar per day. Now, studies are proving that we should never have abandoned a diet rich in healthy fats,
and all that sugar we're eating instead is associated with a litany of health problems just as Yudkin suggested decades ago.
In general, the lack of nutrient-dense food in many Americans’ diets is linked to chronic diseases like cancer, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. These illnesses don't appear overnight, but develop over a lifetime. The cure? A holistic approach to diet and lifestyle behaviors to tease out the risk factors leading to illness -- which is exactly what the Institute for Integrative Nutrition aims to do through their Health Coach Training program and new nonprofit. More information on their mission to beat sugar blues can be found here.
Emma is a traveling health and fitness coach, current location Guatemala.