Sugary Diet Vs Western Diet

After reading the article “The Toxic Truth about Sugar” my thinking and reactions are identical to the description of the results in the article. Keeping the overall view of sugar and its danger to human health and mankind, I consider the authors are completely realistic and fair about ways of controlling and limiting the amount of sugar which processed-food industry adds to its products.

Michael Pollan says in his argument that the western diet is chiefly to blame for a majority of health deceases, he says “the scientist who blame our health problems on defiances of these micronutrients are not the same scientist who see sugar-soaked diet leading to metabolic syndrome and from there to diabetes, heart deceases, and cancer” (421) Due to all this negative impact to our health Pollan says that the food industry needs new theories to better redesign processed food and the medical community to make new drugs to beget deceases.

Tobacco, alcohol and poor diet are the main risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory disease that kills approximately 35 million per year. Out of the three risk factors, an inadequate diet was found to the culprit of more diseases than smoking and liquor consumption combined. In Aseem Malhorta’s (2014) article “Sugar is now enemy number one in the western diet”, he claims that added sugar should be regulated as it is a health hazard that has caused the increasing prevalence of diabetes and obesity. Malhorta only focuses on sugar being the main causative agent in causing negative health outcomes, he fails to address the fact that there are many other confounding factors associated with each disease

Down the road, added sugar has increased health complications tenfold. According to Quanhe Yang, from the Center of Disease and Control, “ 'death resulting from cardiovascular disease increases exponentially from added sugar consumption.' ”(Hellmich) Atherosclerosis, the most common cause of cardiovascular disease, is caused by correctable problems such as

Birt, D. F.; Pelling, J. C.; Nair, S., and Lepley, D. Diet intervention for modifying cancer risk. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1996; 395:223-34.

The American diet is based mostly in processed food which contains enormous amount of sugar. The excessive consumption of sugar can cause diseases such as obesity, heart diseases, alzheimer, liver diseases, diabetes and others. One of the problems with the consumption of sugar is that people get sick progressively without the knowledge that it is caused by sugar. In addition, sugar is an addictive food and life without it is almost impossible. As a result, processed foods are cheaper than healthy food. It is hard to avoid processed food when Americans do not have time to cook because of their life style. Americans need to know the way to change their diet and improve their lifestyles. Americans sometimes forget about the amount of sugar that a soda or flavored drink contains. These drinks are tasty, but it will not satisfy thirst. Sugar is equally dangerous and has the same health effects than smoke cigarettes. Consume sugar in excessive amounts per day have a significant effect in Americans ' daily life. Americans should be aware of the diseases caused by their eating habits, therefore; they should be more conscious of what they eat and change their diet.

The results of these years of study have been consistently inconsistent and there continues to be conflicting theories on whether cancer can be prevented through dietary changes. Of the many risk factors of breast cancer, diet is one that is more measurable and within an individual’s control to be adjusted (Albuquerque, Baltar, & Marchioni, 2014). Being overweight, or obese, with little exercise activity has been linked to an increase in breast cancer risk, as does the consumption of alcohol (Harvie, Howell, & Evans,

Sugary beverages suggest a poor dietary quality; they are loaded with added sugars and attribute to the body’s energy density. “A 20-year study on 120,000 men and women found that people who increased their sugary drink consumption by one 12-ounce serving per day gained more weight over time—about 4 pounds per year” (19). Through increasing the daily intake in trivial increments, the body substantially results in an increased BMI (body mass index) and an increased body fat percentage score. Another study conducted at Harvard found that a 60 percent increase occurs in children for each 12-ounce they additionally drink daily. (________) The growing correlation between obesity and sugar has led to further studies, and statistical data. Researchers have revealed that in total, “half the people in the U.S. consume sugary drinks; 1 in 4 get at least 200 calories from such drinks; and 5% get at least 567 calories.” It was additionally found that one-fourth of Americans are consuming more than 135 grams of sugar per day from soda and other sweetened beverages, which compares to people of the past who only had 10 grams of fructose a day (_____). Such a high daily intake of sugar and calories illustrates the risk that arises when people consume too much sugar; that is, sugary drinks result in weight issues and medical consequences.

The past fifty years has seen a spike in the consumption of sugar, that number totaling a tripling increase. However, sugar is not the only risk factor here, alcohol and tobacco can also be attributed with the spike, albeit not as prevalent as sugar. The biggest question that Lustig et al. poses to its’ readers is this: “What aspects of the Western diet should be the focus of intervention”? (par. 3) The current USDA has been deemed “boogeymen” of diets, as well as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Lustig et al. all believe that our attention should be turned towards “added sugar”, which is a sweetener that has fructose in it. Perhaps the biggest controversy from the past fifty years has been none other than a severe culprit that experts know as high fructose corn syrup or HFCS.

The aim of this experiment is to determine the effects of consuming diet sodas containing aspartame and risk of developing cancers. Three types of blood cancers were considered in this research: leukemia and multiple myeloma and non- Hodgkin lymphomas. The participants used included 47,810 men aged between 40-75 years and 77,218 women aged between 30-55 years with no medical account of cancer. The regular diet of the participants was evaluated using a semi quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), which included measuring the consumption of diet soda. The results showed that the risk of developing multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphomas increased linearly for men, but not women, with an intake of 1 or more diet sodas per day. However,

The majority of the studies done on the link between diet and cancer indicate that there is a relationship between high fat intake and an increased risk

Researchers from the University of California recently published a report showing how the sugar industry hid research that directly linked sucrose to heart disease and cancer. It seems that back in 1968 the Sugar Research Foundation (known today as the Sugar Association) secretly funded an animal study called Project 259. The research from this study was supposed to disprove evidence linking sucrose consumption to blood lipid levels. Instead, the data pointed to a link between sugar and an increased risk for heart disease and even bladder cancer. So, they pulled the plug on the research and chose not to publish the results.

The research performed by Lorenzo Cohen and his team at the University of Texas, pointed out that sugar fuel cancer growth and refined sugar as the major culprit of cancer. The

defense system it can alter a cell's genes to make it become a cancerous cell.

Over the years, there has been an emphasis on the need to watch one’s dietary intake in the wake of the many lifestyle and sedentary diseases. As a result, many healthcare practitioners have undertaken dietary counselling as a platform for preventive therapy to many diseases. In recent times, one key area that has received extensive attention in regards to nutrition is cancer. Despite the existence of many forms of cancer, global studies in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute agree that over 35% of cancer cases have a nutritional connection. The general inference that is made is that lifestyle factors such as exercise and diet contribute significantly to the health status and well-being of individuals including the possibility of developing cancer (Peisch, Blarigan, Chan, Stampfer, & Kenfield, 2016). One recent form of cancer that has a strong dietary and nutritional connection is prostate cancer. In the American context, prostate cancer is ranked as the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality within the male population only rivalled by lung cancer (Peisch et al., 2016). Epidemiologically, the statistical inferences suggest that over 33,000 men die of the disease annually from malignant cases that are reported each year in the US alone (Azrad et al., 2012). Consequentially, healthcare practitioners have sought to establish the linkage between prostate cancer and the nutritional intake such as milk and other plant products. Indeed, there are