January 20, 2017

FEATURED ISSUE
Is sugar toxic?
Now that the holiday season has passed, are you returning to a healthy diet? Many health and nutrition stories in the media focus on reducing sugar consumption. The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and American Heart Association (AHA) recommend an upper limit for added sugars of fewer than 10% of total calories per day (about 4 tablespoons for a 2000 calorie diet). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends half that amount for better health effects. Yet recent studies show that the average person in the U.S. consumes over seven tablespoons of sugar every day. How serious is this? Experts describe a wide range of dangers of too much sugar that can lead to the development of specific conditions like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hormone imbalance, etc.

ISSUE: How is your level of sugar consumption impacting your health?

AHHA strives to maintain a neutral position on issues. For those interested in this issue, the following articles were selected to provide you a variety of possible causes to research. Perhaps what you find will influence you to make dietary changes.

Research: Teens take in enough sugar each year to fill a bathtub with cola (1/14/17)
by Vicki Batts
Natural News

Eating too much added sugar increases the risk of dying with heart disease (11/30/16)
by Julie Corliss
Harvard Health Publications

The case against sugar (2016)
by Gary Taubes
Aeon

Can eating too much sugar cause type 2 diabetes? (9/29/16)
by Mary Brophy Marcus
CBS News

15 disturbing consequences of eating too much sugar (9/16/16)
by Lauren F Friedman
Business Insider