Sugar. Is it the crack product we’re hearing about?  Since nobody chooses to be obese, and the weight loss industry in this country is topping $50 billion dollars with no positive effect on reducing the obesity statistics, something has to be wrong. Could sugar be the culprit?

Why do we eat 25% more today than we did 25 years ago?  Because it’s available?  As Dr. Richard Johnson discusses in his book The Fat Switch – maybe it’s something that we’re eating that’s eating us.

Here’s a great article that describes the differences between sucrose, fructose, and glucose written by Kimberly Ancira’s. Without becoming a chemist, it’s important to understand at least how our bodies work or use these sugars.  Because once you do, you’ll understand that when the food and beverage manufacturers switched sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s they really did alter our diets. They did so because they discovered that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, but is also about 20% sweeter than table sugar.  Hmmmm

Guess how much sugar the average American eats in a year today? About 160 pounds of sugar A YEAR!  I can hear you saying I do NOT eat that much sugar…  No? Are you sure?

When you read the labels on the food in your pantry what do you find?  Go ahead and take a look at that barbecue sauce, marinades, crackers, cereal, salad dressing, even ketchup.  It’s always in grams so if you were like me I would just see the number and shrug.  But here’s how you convert those grams.  4 grams = 1 teaspoon of sugar. Take a look at a can of soda.  Whoa.

Now here’s the kicker – when reading labels sometimes the word sugar isn’t in the ingredients.  So we might be prone to think that we’re ok ~ but remember other names for added sugars include high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, molasses, honey, and sucrose.

So are you being deceived by sugar?  Watch this video and see what’s happening inside your body when you down those sodas!

Sugar… is it as bad as crack? Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts…