Refined sugar = dangerous stuff: articles.mercola... - Headway
Refined sugar = dangerous stuff
I have to admit to still taking sugar in my tea as alternatives spoil the pleasure too much. But I've managed to cut down by 25% over the past 12 months (1&1/2 tsps. instead of 2) and maintained it.
My goal is 1tsp ! I never drink canned/bottled drinks or alcohol ; only tea, coffee & water. And I allow myself a scrumptious cake only once a week !
We see the effects of carbonated, sugary drinks and poor diet everywhere now. It used to be unusual to see one example of obesity on the street, now it's become the norm.
It needs to be addressed with the same vigour as tobacco (did that for too long 'til 5 years ago) alcohol and any other addictive substance..................trouble is all the vigour is being sucked out of the NHS so not surprising that folk are falling by the wayside.
And what about our brains ? We know sugar will make you run faster ................but only if you keep running ! We know that obesity restricts blood flow to the brain at least.
It's unforgivable how Coca Cola promotes a CC fuelled lifestyle as perfectly healthy so long as accompanied by exercise.
Tax sugar by all means, but governments worldwide should also be held to account for continuing to allow the present levels of sugar in prepared foods.
But we all have the power to eat and drink healthily at no extra cost ................... and tap water is free (almost). x
I admit to having sugar every now and then but I don't consume as much as I did. I used to drink coffee with one tsp of sugar and probably a couple of biscuits.
USED TO, not no more though. I don't have any sugar in my coffee now, actually, I don't really drink coffee at home at all now. I have a herbal tea instead. Usually Pukka's ginger, lemon and manuka honey. When I am out and about, I might have a latte but no sugar is involved.
I do have the odd cake every now and then but I don't eat as much of them now.
My diet is pretty much sugarless.
If we lived in an ideal world, I could live easily without sugar.
I don't drink a lot of alcohol at home but if I were to go out for a meal at a pub I will usually have a pint of Guinness and at my other disabled club which is held in the Masonic hall where I live, they have a private bar there and I usually get a bottle of Crabbie's alcoholic ginger beer.
I used to intake a lot of sugar when I was younger and drink a lot of sodas and once I came off the sodas and started to drink more cordial my mum told me all the colour had come back to my face. I must have been quite a pale kid. Nowadays though, I wouldn't touch cordial, is bad stuff to.
Funny you mention about sugar making us run faster ie, gives us energy. I read something not too long ago that coconut water provides more energy than sugar-filled sports drinks and coco water 100% natural too. Once I had ditched drinking the sodas, I did have a spell of drinking tap water but eventually found drinking coconut water is better. Trouble is, not many people like the taste of coco water. I found that it tastes a bit like sweetened milk. Depends on what brand of coco water you get. I tried one brand that started sweet but had a nutty aftertaste.
It is unforgivable about coca cola. It's unforgivable that they have lied to us for years. Many people would think that DIET coke would be the drink to help you lose weight. How wrong you would be. Diet coke doesn't have sugar in it but it does have a sweetner in it called Aspartame which is so much worse than sugar.
It's funny how you mention water to be free... Almost.
The company Nestlé who make chocolate, or should I say they get their slaves to make chocolate. The CEO of the company, Peter Brabeck, he believes that water is not a human right and Nestlé suck up as much natural water as they can and sell it back to the public!.... According to what I have read anyway.
And people in America get fined for collecting rainwater!, apparently.
I think the problem with sugar is that we have evolved to desire sweet things, and it is difficult (currently) to find alternatives that are reasonably priced, manufactured other than by hobby producers, and give the same effect. Nevertheless, my cupboard is stocked with Manuka honey, (as well as the Tesco value brand), maple syrup, stevia powder, and agave nectar - but none seem to work very well in a Victoria sponge, my other weakspot....
I think the secret to all these things is moderation. If I lived in the Far East I would have grown up with a diet which was free from ridiculous amounts of fats and sugars....I didn't though. So for me the happy medium is to ensure that I produce as much as I can at home - no pre-prepared meals for us; and that I keep my diet as balanced as possible. That means that sometimes (for example if I am making Scotch pancakes for breakfast, as I did this morning) I will stick an ounce of sugar in there. It is the only time that I added sugar to any food all day. And as I produced everything else in the home, including the flatbread which went with our dinner tonight, that can't be that much of a problem, surely??
Tony Blair's mantra was 'Education-Education-Education. Pity there's nothing on the curriculum about diet/healthy lifestyle ....................... it could be Moderation-Moderation-Moderation !
People don't really bother looking into what they are actually eating.
For some, a Mars bar is a Mars bar. You got chocolate, caramel and nougat but that's not it though. Most processed food items list 20-40 ingredients/chemicals just to make a yogurt! Do you really need that amount?
Then you've got ingredients that contain sugar but are under a different name such as glucose and fructose, usually words ending in 'ose'.
Now the 'fat' thing is a big lie to the people. People would blame the fat content for making people fat when really the body needs fats, saturated fats for instance.
Trans fats you find in margerine is dangerous stuff. You're better off having butter rather than marge.
I do wonder if we concentrated on improving the country's diet how this would affect things like education and our NHS.
I wouldn't be surprised if the UK diet now kills more people a year than smoking !
The most annoying thing is that the UK government makes a lot of noise about the state of our health but does nothing substantial to improve it.
We need a huge cultural change to get away from the badly prepared ready meals and mass produced foods.
All foods and drinks which have an unnecessary amount of sugar, fat or salt should be taxed by the government. Unnecessary products like chewing gum should also be taxed heavily
The tax money should be plowed back into leisure - I have never understood why kids have to pay for swimming or even swimming lessons!
You have hit the nail on the head there!
I believe that many processed foods (or as I call them "Fake foods" or "Dirty foods") are the reason for poor health and even death.
Yes, the government should tax the salt, sugar and trans fat intake. They get us to pay taxes.
What I don't like is paying housing tax. You've bought a house, that's it. You shouldn't have to keep paying cos of taxes. And the housing tax is supposed to go toward maintaining the area you live in. The area I live in has not been well maintained for years!
So true about Council Tax our County Council Chief is on over £300k per year !
I would also add TV licence. Why should we be required by law to support a particular TV company ? There would be uproar if we all had to have a subscription to Sky! Having state owned TV, radio and media doesn't sound like a free an independant service.
Car Tax (Road fund licence) another ridiculous unfair tax. A pensione that drives a few hundred miles a year pays the same as a company rep whom is on the road every day. Remove the tax and put a 1p extra on fuel. It isn't if it would affect food prices as HGV road tax is £1,200 per year.
There are so many small, incremental changes we could do but we have so much inertia to do anything. As a country we need to step back and look at what our government and councils do and why. I would like to see a fundamental reorganisation of services.
I'm with you on the fundamental recognisation of services.
The government are rich enough, so why do they tax almost everything?
It makes me laugh how these people are so incredibly greedy to make money when at the end of the day money is just a bunch of material, there is no real value to it.
Who provides what within the councils and central Government needs to be looked at. Sadly for you guys in England it is going to be harder to achieve but in the devolved parliaments law making and reorganisation is getting better. At the moment in Wales we are increasing the Anti Smoking legislation and looking to implement more stringent rules on the sale of fireworks. Within each country we are constrained by artificial boundaries which not only constrain services but thinking as well. We need to remove a lot of these "boundaries"
Some of it (to me at least) seems blindingly obvious :
Remove Childrens and Adult Services from the Council and move them to the NHS and have them based in GP surgeries and not cosy centralised offices. Who thought a having a county council look after health and wellbeing is a good idea ?
Take education off the County Council. We have a Department of education that doesn't control the people or premises where education is delivered. And have standard timetables and education plans across all school years.
The same with Libraries - move them to the Department of education or elsewhere. The same with Council run theatres, Cinemas etc.
The Fostering service for children is the same.
Let the councils concentrate on infrastructure and other similar services.
The problem with soft drinks/pop is the amount of sugar. And peoples use of it, i.e. moderation, or rather lack of it.
Coke does have it's place, I do use it to replace glycogen if i'm on a longer ride some times to stave off the Wall/Bonk and irritatingly as a non drinker if I go to a bar etc with friends then there isn't much else!
Yes, coke does have a place, it has a place as a household cleaner.
The phosphoric acid in coke, the stuff that rots your teeth, is fantastic at lifting off stubborn stains.
The price of soft drinks in pubs has now gone beyond a farce now. Like most of us post injury we don't drink much if it all. In one of the local pub chains the price of a pint (low quality lager) is £3.40 a pint of cola is £3.00. There isn't much incentive for people not to drink and as you say if you wish to abstain - not a lot of choice !
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