American's Eat Way Too Much Sugar

The American Heart Association just released new recommendations on sugar consumption. This information is hardly news to those of us who care about healthy dietary habits but a solid endorsement from the AHA to cut back is always nice.

According the AHA American's consume approximately 22 teaspoons of sugar on average every day and should only be consuming 6-9 depending on gender. This equates to a reduction of 150-250 calories per day if American's were to simply lower their sugar intake. I have previously noted that a simple reduction in calories can lower systemic inflammation and that the best diet is simply eating less of everything. I have even noted that increases in sugar consumption is linked to some degree with Alzheimer's Disease. I think it's general knowledge that high calorie diets lead to obesity so I find this finding to be fairly straight forward, unbelievably, however, the sugar industry has denied the claims as illustrated in the following video segment from NBC Nightly News (air date: 8/25/09).

NBC Nightly News on Sugar

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It's funny, the argument that excessive sugar is not bad for you reminds me of claims from cigarette companies from decades past stating that nicotine was not addictive and that cigarettes were perfectly healthy... when of course we all know that they are the single most unhealthy thing you can do to your body. After all smoking is one of the leading causes of heart disease and I suspect that eating too much sugar is close behind due to its effects of causing obesity and diabetes.

For those that wish to peruse the official study as published in the journal Circulation (8/24/09), please enjoy.