Sugar is Making us Fatter than Fat.

            Why must sugar be added to non-sweet foods like breads and sauces?  Read the labels of the foods you buy.  Sugar, or a form of sugar, is added to everything.  When fat is eliminated from foods sugar is added to provide flavor.  I’m definitely not anti-sugar.  I love desserts and candy, but my sandwich bread doesn’t have to be sweet.   

            On Friday my blog was about the food 6 centenarians said they ate daily almost all of their lives.  These foods were cheese, beer, steak, apples, oatmeal, salad, whole milk, and vegetables.  I thought this information was cool because none of those foods were processed or manufactured.  They were all real foods, with full fat and without a label.

          What was missing from their list (I realize the list was not comprehensive) were any products with sugar.  Think about it for the moment.  Cheese, steak and whole milk are full of fat, but don’t contain any sugar.  If you have a health condition that requires you to control your fat intake than please do so.  Follow your doctor’s advice. But if you are a healthy person and you just want to eat for health and well-being you don’t have to eliminate every bit of fat from your plate.  Fat adds taste, satisfaction, and satiety--the feeling of being full.

           Before the industrial revolution, Americans ate lots of butter, whole milk, meat, and cheese.  In the 1970s, a study related fat to heart attacks.  Since then people have run from fats.  Yet as a nation, we have gotten fatter and sicker through the years.  I’m not a scientist, dietitian, doctor, or researcher. I’m just a regular person trying to stay healthy, energetic, and thin.  I read a lot and I think a lot.  Common sense leads to the conclusion that the elimination of fat is not working.

           Pay attention to the amount of sugar you are consuming.  Do you realize that sugar has many names?   In an About.com article on April 26, 2010 Laura Dolson writes about the many names for sugar.  Here is her list: Agave Nectar, Corn sweetener, Corn syrup, or corn syrup solids, Dehydrated Cane Juice, Dextrin, Dextrose, Fructose, Fruit juice concentrate, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup, Honey, Invert sugar, Lactose, Maltodextrin, Malt syrup, Maltose, Maple syrup, Molasses, Raw sugar, Rice Syrup, Saccharose, Sorghum or sorghum syrup, Sucrose, Syrup, Treacle, Turbinado Sugar, Xylose.  I’m sure this is not an exhaustive list. 

            Sugar, not fat, is everywhere.  Again, common sense leads to the conclusion that sugar is making us fatter than fat.   

 Cooking is easier than you think and you and your family are worth the time and effort it takes. 

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