Oh Sh.. ugar?
This article is part of a series of insights into what an Average American life really looks like.
After recently writing about things like New Year’s Resolutions and Fitness, I intended to dig into the average American diet this week. I say intended because I couldn’t get past sugar. Holy shit do we consume a lot of the stuff. Of course, we’re not talking about naturally occurring sugar either, no, no. This is the added stuff which shows up just about everywhere.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that we consume no more than 10% of our calories from added sugar. That works out to be about 12 teaspoons of added sugar a day. The American Heart Association are a little stricter and recommend a maximum of six teaspoons for women and nine for men. The Average American however, consumes 17 teaspoons (71.14 grams) of added sugar per day. That adds up to about 57 pounds of added sugar consumed each year, per person.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends the following guidelines:
- 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day for women
- 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day for men
- 3–6 teaspoons (12–25 grams) per day for children
For reference, one 20-oz bottle of Coke already exceeds the daily recommended limit, with 16 teaspoons of sugar added. But it’s easy to jump on Coke, right? Often the poster child for our excessive sugar intake, but far from alone. In fact, many of the popular brand-name items in America come loaded with added sugar. Beverages are among the worst offenders. Here’s a small few:
Sugar High
Sugar is the most popular ingredient added to foods in the U.S. It’s found in cakes, cookies, candy and added to many processed foods like ketchup, crackers, bread, soups, cereals, peanut butter, cured meats and salad dressings. Soft drinks are responsible for most of the added sugar in the average American diet.
Given the food sources listed above it unfortunately shouldn’t come as a surprise that children are the group most at risk of excess in their diet. On average, U.S. children consume 19 teaspoons of added sugar daily, largely from soda, fruit-flavored drinks, sports drinks, cakes and cookies, according to the report. The AHA made three recommendations:
- Children over age 2 years should consume no more than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugar each day.
- Children should not drink more than one 8-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage per week.
- Children under 2 years should avoid consuming any added sugar since they need nutrient-rich diets and are developing taste preferences.
Consequences
Sugar is killing us. If that triggers you, it should.
Research published in the American Journal of Public Health found that sugar accelerates the aging process by speeding up the cell aging process. By measuring the cell telomere lengths, scientists can find out the aging speed of an individual. In a study of 5,309 people, those who drink sugary drinks on a regular basis are shown to have much shorter telomere lengths than individuals who do not drink sugary drinks. If you drink one 20-oz current standard-size bottle of soda each day, this translates into approximately 4.6 additional years of cell aging.
The National Cancer Institute link a high intake of fructose to significant increased risk of developing certain types of cancer such as brain cancer, pancreatic cancer (up to 53% increased risk), oral cancer (increased 10 to 15%), and prostate cancer (increased 33% risk).
According to multiple longitudinal case studies by the American Diabetes Association that involved 310,819 participants, results showed that those who consumed 1 to 2 servings of sugary beverages per day had an increased 26% risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Research by Melissa Schilling, a professor at NYU from a longitudinal clinical study that spanned over 10 years found that individuals with high blood sugar had a much faster cognitive decline rate than individuals with normal blood sugar range. Those who suffered from type 2 diabetes at the beginning of the study were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than healthy individuals.
How America Got Hooked
Our unbalanced diet started with a misplaced fear of fat. In the 1940s, researchers discovered a correlation between high-fat diets and high cholesterol. So well-meaning physicians began prescribing patients at risk of heart disease low-fat diets. By the 1960s, this diet was being touted as good for the whole nation. Come the 1980s, Americans were buying low-fat everything.
Added sugar is all but impossible to escape in processed foods, which account for 58% of the average American’s daily calories. Removing fat from foods required substituting it with something else. In most cases, manufacturers chose sugar, and it reprogrammed our brain. People are often too quick to call things other than drugs addictive, but sugar does play with the brain’s reward center. Like sex, drugs or money, a little bit of sugar makes us want more.
Closing thoughts
Added sugar is a real menace. After researching this topic I did an audit of my own daily intake. I start most days with a granola bar at 5am before going for a run. That’s already 1/3 of my daily recommended intake. Recently, I’ve been eating a bowl of yogurt, granola and banana for breakfast. That’s the other 2/3 of my recommended intake. I’ve already hit the limit by breakfast time! Considering the health risks, I’m going to change that up moving forward. One point of solace, the delicious Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer I’ve been drinking lately has no added sugar (thank god).
Thanks for reading! If you would like to receive future editions of this blog direct to your inbox, drop your email here and I’ll make sure you receive it.
Stephen
For more from this series:
The Holidays: America’s $1 Trillion Industry
Why Many American’s Are Wary of the COVID-19 Vaccine
Can the Average American still afford to live in America?
The Death of an American Dream
Over 65% of Americans will take drugs today
Here’s how much the average American actually makes in a year