In 1900, the average yearly sugar intake was 11 pounds per person. It’s now 96 pounds per person in North America, and as high as 140 pounds per person in the U.S. In contrast, it’s only 38 pounds per person per year in Asia. You can follow the sugar trail to the exploding U.S. childhood obesity epidemic—which has grown tenfold in 45 years—from 1975 to 2021. Let’s take a deeper look at this sugar addiction.
“Diabetes used to be an extremely rare disease, but now it’s predicted that one-third of Americans will develop the condition.”
Jacob Teitelbaum, MD
Sugar Research
Research published in The Lancet documents the disturbing growth of child obesity, which portends a rise in chronic diseases such as diabetes as well as heart disease and other complications. In addition, statistics released by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics show overall U.S. obesity rates since the 1980’s have more than tripled!
Beating the Sugar Addiction
I recently reread a great book that takes a hard look at the sugar epidemic in this country. The book was written by Jacob Teitelbaum, MD and titled, The Complete Guide to Beating Sugar Addiction. “For the first time, we’re seeing people who are both obese and malnourished at the same time thanks to the empty calories provided by sugar which has become a staple of the Standard American Diet,” states the author who is a board certified internist.
Start by Reading Food Labels
According to Dr. Teitelbaum, the solution may be as simple as learning to be a discriminating consumer by reading nutrition labels. “It’s just like reading the price tag when you go shopping—and then deciding if it’s worth it,” explains Dr. Teitelbaum. “The formula to determine how much sugar is in any product serving is easy. Divide the grams of sugar by four to tell you how many teaspoons of sugar are in a serving, and your own common sense will tell you whether it’s worth the cost to your health and well-being.”
Final Thoughts
What I found different from this particular book compared to other books on the same topic, is it offers you a plan to fight the “addiction” and finally put it to rest. As part of his solution, he offers a well-researched list of natural remedies to try. His section on adrenal gland fatigue as a result of long-term sugar addiction was also very interesting.
Another option to try is to put yourself on a added sugar budget. Meaning, for men, eat less than 38 grams of added sugar per day (150 calories). For women, eat less than 25 grams of added sugar per day (100 calories). Break the number of grams down into three meals and a snack per day to get a better idea of how much added sugar you really need. This is a great way to begin to wean off the sugar!
Stay Strong Together
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Read the scientific paper published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research using the Jefit app. Also, a great Jefit app review was recently published by MUO that can be found here.
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