健康科普阅读 | How to Crack America’s Sugar Problem

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IMAGINE MAKING A nearly life-size sculpture of yourself out of sugar cubes andconsuming it over the next 365 days. That’s essentially what many of us aredoing. The typical American eats an average of 128 pounds of added sugars eachyear, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And it affects ourbodies on every level.

People who got between 10 and 25percent of their calories form added sugar were almost three times more likelyto die of heart problems than those who consumed less than 10 percent of theircalories from sugar, researchers reported earlier this year in a major medicaljournal. The stats held up even after they accounted for overall diet quality;in other words, sugar may harm your health even if you’re thin and eatingreasonably. Previous studies have found links between sugar intake and higherlevels of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol. Excess sugar is also associatedwith inflammatory chemicals that raise heart disease risk.

Countless other studies link oursky-high sugar intake to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and even certain cancers.Sugar interferes with your brain’s satiety signals, which is a fancy way ofsaying that normally, your brain would tell you that you’re full, but you can’thear it over the sugar buzz, so you keep stuffing yourself. Excess sugarhinders fat-burning enzymes, encouraging fat storage.

Worst of all, even if you know thehealth consequences, you may still find it hard to stop eating sugar. That’sbecause sugar can be addictive. When rats eat sugar, their brains flood withdopamine, the same chemical released during gambling and cocaine use. As therats eat more sugar, their brains’ reward systems adjust, so the animals needmore food to get the same effects.

Human brains appear similarlyvulnerable. Last year, a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionfound that high-sugar chocolate milk shakes lit up the reward centers ofparticipants’ brains more effectively than milk shakes that were caloricallyidentical but higher in fat and lower in the sweet stuff. This sugar-stokedreward system can drive compulsive eating, the researchers believe.

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A Sweet Solution

AS SCIENTIFIC STUDIES and media headlines scream about the dangers of sugar, public healthexperts urge people to cut back. In March, new World Health Organization (WHO)guidelines proposed that people consume less than 5 percent of their dailycalories from added sugar—that’s about six teaspoons a day, or about the amountin one 8-ounce bottle of sweetened lemon iced tea. The average Americanconsumes almost quadruple the WHO recommendation—22 teaspoons of added sugar aday.

But sugar-proofing your diet istricky. Sugar has infiltrated so much of our modern food supply that you’llfind it where you would never think to look, including healthy cereal, savory saladdressing, and yogurt. Lurking on the ingredients lists of processed foods aremore than 50 different names for sugar, from fruit juice concentrate to maltodextrinto rice syrup.

To make a permanent change, youneed to understand what’s really in your food—and what to eat instead.

Working at the forefront of thiseffort for more than 30 years is nutrition and fitness expert High Voltage (akaKathie Dolgin), who recently appeared in FedUp, the Katie Couric-and Laurie David-produced documentary about thenation’s sugar crisis. Decades ago, she beat her own food addictions byeliminating excess sugar, white flour, and salt from her diet, then developed aplan called Energy Up, which she took to girls at New York City high schools,when Columbia University Medical Center studied the program, researchers foundthat over nine months, more than half of students lost weight and obese girlsshed an average of 13 pounds.

This year, High Voltage teamed upwith Reader’s Digest to adapt theprogram for people of all ages, then asked 15 women with various food andhealth issues to try it. In six weeks on our Sugar Savvy Solution plan, the women cut sugar cravings and lostalmost 168 pounds—and gained energy and confidence. Many saw lower bloodpressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides.

“My taste buds have changed. Iwant healthy foods instead of junk,” says test panelist Megan Johnson, 22, wholost 13 pounds in six weeks. Patricia Nolan, 47, who shed 16 pounds,rediscovered a love of fresh fruits and vegetables. Before Sugar Savvy, Cheryl Lee, 50, was a self-described “carb junkie” whowould eat cookies and cake all night. Now she’s strong enough to resist whenher daughter wants to order fried chicken and biscuits or other junky fare.

Sugar Savvy**Solution is not a diet; it’s aneffort to change how you think about food. “I have one very simple motto,” saysHigh Voltage. “Eat what you want, but SugarSavvy Solution will change what you want.”

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QUZI: ARE YOU ASUGAR ADDICT?

Answer yes or no to the following:

1. If you reach for one cookie orchip, is the bag empty before you know it?
2. Can you skip dessert but empty thebread basket—and the pasta platter?
3. Can you control your food intakeduring meals but lose it when you start to snack, especially on chips andcrackers?
4. When you want to lose weight, isit easier to skip meals altogether rather than just eat smaller ones?
5. Are you tired all the time? Arethere things you’d love to do but just don’t have the energy for?
6. Once you’ve had “just a taste” ofbread, bagels, muffins, crackers, pasta, or rice, do you go back for a second(or third) helping?
7. Do you spend the day on a rollercoaster of snacking highs and lows, hitting the doughnuts in the morning, thevending machine chips or candy in the afternoon, and the ice cream at night?
8. Do you eat healthy around otherpeople but lose it when you’re alone?

■ If you answered yes to two ormore odd-numbered questions, your food addiction likely lies with sweets orsalty snacks—cookies, chips, cakes—that have been carefully engineered by foodscientists to keep you eating and eating and eating.

■ If you answered ye to two or moreeven-numbered questions, you are highly susceptible to the addictive powers ofwhite flour (which acts like a sugar during digestion).

■ If you answered yes to two ormore odd- and even-numbered questions (at least four total questions), you arehighly susceptible to food addiction, period.

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How to Stamp Out Sugar

THESE FOUR PRINCIPLES can help anyone cut down on sugar intake.

1 Eat no more than24 grams(or six teaspoons) of added sugar in 24 hours. One teaspoon /cube equals fourgrams. When you see sugar grams on a label, divide by four to get the thenumber of teaspoons. A packet of oatmeal can have 12 grams of sugar—that’sthree teaspoons, or half of what SugarSavvy Solution recommends for the day. Yogurt can have more than 24 grams—your whole day’sallotment. High Voltage recommends that everyone track his or her sugar intakefor one week. Many women echo what test panelist Aris Pacheco, 35, said afterdid so:”Once I learned how much sugar was in all those things, I didn’t wantthem anymore.”

2 Kick out trigger foods. Think of those that send you into a state of out-of-control eating, says HighVoltage. You want just one spoonful of Nutella, and suddenly you’re scrapingthe bottom of the jar. You intend to have a few French fries, only to end upeating them all. You probably have some idea of what foods may be problematicfor you, but the food-triggers quiz on the previous page can help you zero in.Get these foods out of your kitchen, out of your purse, and out of your officesnack drawer.

***3 Hydrate correctly.***Properhydration gives you energy, but not if your drinks are loaded with sugar andchemicals. By eliminating soft drinks and other non-diet beverages, the averagewoman can lose a pound a week. Sugar Savvy Solution calls for drinking eight8-ounce glasses of water a day. Adequate water intake may quell your appetite,boost your metabolism, and combat bloating.

4 Fuel every two tofour hours. “Peoplecomplain that they don’t eat all day and still can’t lose weight,” says HighVoltage. “If you come home starving, you eat anything and everything, and yourbody puts it straight into storage because it’s afraid you’re going to starveit again.”

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