Why Sugar Is Bad For You Essay

There are plenty of reasons and research studies that show how destructive sugar can be for your health if not managed properly, “and unfortunately our standard American Diet is anything but balanced.”(Konie 1) Americans don’t manage their sugar levels, let alone manage their sugar intake. The exponential growth of obesity in underway and the main cause. Sugar. Many people don’t understand this but sugar is perfectly fine as long as you can control it, many also don’t realize just, “how dangerous the extremes can be.”(Konie 1)

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

When most people think about sugar, their first thoughts are not: heart disease, addiction, or slow and painful death; yet, unfortunately, these conditions are very real consequences of the unregulated and excessive consumption of sugar. In Nature’s article, “The Toxic Truth About Sugar” (2012), Robert Lustig, pediatric endocrinologist; Laura Schmidt, Professor of Health Policy at UCSF; and Claire Brindis, Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy at UCSF, evaluate the world’s ever-increasing and toxic struggle with the substance sugar – also discussing counter measures to promote healthier diets amongst American’s and other societies. Lustig and his colleagues develop their argument using statistical evidence as they address the global impact of sugar, refuting minor oppositions, before dissecting each harmful aspect of the substance – even comparing it to substances more known for their toxicity. Eventually, presenting readers with possible routes of regulation, the authors firmly suggest government intervention in the production and sale of sugary foods. Although the argument is well executed, I remain unconvinced that government intervention is actually necessary.

When researching for nutrition health information we tend to always look on the internet, magazines, television etc., and when looking on the internet article or magazine to find there always has to be an author who wrote/published the website or article such as a doctor or nutrition specialist and dietitian. It is important to know where and who we get this nutrition information from. If it does not have an author or the author’s credentials on the website is it not a credible source. Second, it uses anecdotal evidence such as testimonies (I lost weight, so can you…). Normally websites using a '.com' suffix may or may not be sources of reliable information. Sometimes they are simply commercial sites that are trying to sell you a product, so they may not provide reliable information. This would not be a credible source, you need to have scientific research to actually know if it works. Thirdly, when a brief written account of someone else’s research is written is a short summary, it is not a credible source. Usually when a page as all kinds of off information and does not look like a good source then it is not credible. On a website if the suffix ends in .org, .edu, .gov, it will mainly be a good source to search up your

Many Americans believe that all sugar is bad for the human body. This statement is incorrect because in Konie’s article: Is sugar bad? Why I say no! States that, “Sugar is essential to good health, Im talking about the right kind of sugar as part of real foods diet.” (Konie.para 2.Line 4). What Konie is stating is sugar is good if it is natural sugar, like from ripe fruit and sweet potatoes. This kind of sugar is what the body needs to stay healthy.

The U.S. government is playing a key role in curbing America’s sugar consumption. This was initially created through a new version of our dietary guidelines. Dietary guidelines are created through the USDA to help guide food choices and encourage healthier foods. What was once a pyramid has now turned into a plate, a resource called MyPlate. It provides a visual (pictured below) and an interactive website with daily food-intake values and tips. This has helped American’s with their eating habits but some areas but has also pinpointed areas that need to be more addressed… such as sugar. In fact, poor diet is responsible for more disease than other lifestyle choices.

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.

This piece of article is written by Catherine Saxelby who is an accredited nutritionist. It was written in 11th of December 2013. She likes writing articles on her blog about health related topics. She writes it for people out there who are too busy to maintain a healthy diet. Catherine is biased; she wants people to be healthy and be careful of what kind and how much sugar they’re eating. The purpose of this article is to compare the different types of sugar and see the difference. She is really passionate about health and nutrition and likes sharing more helpful information about it to others. This looks like a popular health and nutrition blog and people actually do turn up for advice.

Defining a sugar-addiction is similar to identifying an addiction to other substances. Addiction to substances similar to heroin, cocaine, alcohol, and cigarettes are defined by a pattern within a twelve month period. Three out of seven symptoms: increased tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, using the substance more than intended, an inability to control the use of the substance, expending effort to obtain the substance, replacing important activities with the use of the substance, and continuing to use the substance despite its negative consequences could indicate addiction of the substance (Tufts University 4). Sugar-addiction is a complex issue, when it comes from sugar, since it is a substance that is in countless foods that are eaten.

Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are big concerns in today's society, but are the measures being taken enough to diminish the epidemic? In recent claims, people feel that the the reduction of sugary drinks will significantly decrease many chronic illnesses, but there are other more effective ways to combat this issue. Government putting a ban is not an ideal solution because people will be able find ways around it and it violates our American values of freedom, a more practical solution is to educate the public on sugary drinks to help deter them from consuming it. This will result in people having a sufficient amount of knowledge to consume more healthier options which in turn will slowly diminish health problems relating to consumption of food.

Is sugar toxic? Is it directly related to diabetes, heart disease and obesity? While I enjoyed this film, that hypothesis ran through my head. As someone who struggles with obesity, I found this documentary to be fascinating and on a deeper level, personal. Not only does the documentary, Sugar Coated, teach us that although sugar is an extremely addicting ingredient and that consuming it in excess is dangerous and can lead to obesity-related diseases, it also vividly explores the relationship between what the film calls “The Sugar Association” and what we believe to be the truth about the effects of sugar. It really makes you think and ask the question, “are we being lied to about sugar and the dangers of excess, for a profit?”.

No really. I absolutely do not take this lightly. I've experienced the damaging effects of sugar first hand, and have seen it slowly poison my loved ones. I lost my mom in 2007 and her sugar intake was a huge factor in her dilapidated quality of life. If I knew then what I know now I would have never, never, NEVER allowed her to have any sugar. Sugar is poison to the body, and is a highly addictive drug that is the foundation of virtually every crippling disease out there. Daily intake of sugar causes your body to remain in a constant acidic state, the ideal environment for disease. It even causes wrinkles!

For my final project, I put together a PSA video that reflects my original argument from essay 2. My argument for this project is that sugar kills happiness, so don’t bother even buying it. I am trying to show how even though sugar may appear like it creates “happiness” because it tastes so good and gets us all excited from the sugar rush, sugar actually KILLS happiness in the long run. I show how this is true through pictures of long term health issues and even deadly circumstances to show how sugar kills happiness. I wanted to stress the point about leaving the sugar on the shelf of the stores, not only because I was targeting mothers and shoppers, but because I also wanted to dig deeper into the root of the issue and

The purpose of this experiment is to find out how the intake of synthetic sugar may have an effect on both resting and active heart rate. This should allow an understanding of the effects sugar can have on the body as well as providing insight concerning the negativity towards excessive portions of this particular substance.

Richards is the most effective author at persuading the audience to consider a healthier lifestyle. Richards use statistics, facts, and very credible sources to establish her point of view that an increase in sugar leads to many health problems.