Americans ate HOW MANY POUNDS of Sweeteners Last Year?!

 Thank you, Smarter Science of Slim...

As a general rule, if it is not coming directly from a plant or an animal, then it has been sweetened. Even if it does not taste sweet, it has been altered with at least one of the following:
Agave Nectar
Barley Malt
Beet Sugar
Brown Sugar

Buttered Syrup
Cane Crystals
Cane Juice Crystals
Cane Sugar
Caramel
Carob Syrup
Castor Sugar
Confectioner’s Sugar
Corn Sweetener
Corn Syrup
Corn Syrup Solids
Crystalline Fructose
Date Sugar
Demerara Sugar
Dextran
Dextrose
Diastatic Malt
Diatase
Ethyl Maltol
Evaporated Cane Juice
Fructose
Fruit Juice
Fruit Juice Concentrates
Galactose
Glucose
Glucose Solids
Golden Sugar
Golden Syrup
Granulated Sugar
Grape Sugar
High-Fructose Corn Syrup
Honey
Icing Sugar
Invert Sugar
Lactose
Malt Syrup
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Maple Syrup
Molasses
Muscovado Sugar
Panocha
Raw Sugar
Refiner’s Syrup
Rice Syrup
Sorbitol
Sorghum Syrup
Sucrose
Sugar
Syrup
Treacle
Turbinado Sugar
Yellow Sugar

WOAH.

Memorizing this list isn’t necessary. However, it is important to know that **any form of caloric sweetener** causes hormonal havoc...and that there are wonderful alternatives such as stevia.

big business vs. sound science

The most common and powerful weapon in the food industry’s arsenal is added sweeteners. Researcher Michael F. Jacobson, with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said, “Carbonated soft drinks are the single most-consumed food in the American diet.”

The problem has gotten so bad that at the turn of the millennium the average American ate over 150 pounds of sweeteners per year because food companies add them to at least the following products:

1. baked or processed foods
2. most anything not refrigerated
3. low-calorie snacks
4. “weight loss” products
5. beverages
6. “protein” bars
7. low-fat salad dressing
8. dairy products
9. cough syrups

Thanks to this sweet saturation, the average American is eating a little under a half-pound of added sweeteners per day. That is a cup of clog every day. Two centuries ago, people ate about one-tenth of that. During the previous 99.8% of our evolution, our ancestors ate none.

Sweeteners vs. Obesity

Note: The first year obesity data is available is 1900

Why is this such a problem?


How did this inSANEity happen? Food that has all of its fat processed out tastes bad. It is hard to sell bad-tasting food.

So food companies add sweeteners when they remove fat.

Combine the government’s “food containing fat is evil” guidelines with $36 billion of “we have yummy low-fat food” marketing, and the result is that nearly a fifth of the average American’s total calories come from sweeteners.

Put differently, our metabolism does not care where caloric sweeteners come from. To our metabolism, apple juice is basically the same as soda, since they both contain about thirty grams of sugar. A “weight loss” bar with thirty grams of sweeteners in it causes the same clog as a candy bar with thirty grams of sugar in it. “Heart smart” cereal is worse than breakfast pastries because they are both full of sweeteners, but folks feel bad eating more than two pastries while they will happily fill bowl after bowl with “enriched” sweetened cereal for breakfast.



It’s also important to understand that the sweetener high-fructose corn syrup is especially common and fattening.