Marion Baker Biology 1010-1015 Professor Schumacher February 27, 2014 Sugar is Copious in the Average American Diet

The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of how added sugar in the diet contributes to an individuals overall health and to become more enlightened as to how much added sugar I personally consumed daily in comparison to the guidelines established by the American Heart Association. When I was growing up one of my favorite movies was Mary Poppins. I loved singing the song A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down as my sister and I sprinkled flavored sugar from our Pixie Sticks into our mouths. Sugar just makes things better, is the mindset of the majority of Americans and a great many food manufactures, just read any processed food label. In America today people want food to be tasty, quick and convenient. I would venture to say most Americans are uninformed as to the amount of sugar they consume daily, and definitely oblivious as to how much they consume yearly. This amount is staggering, according to the USDA Agriculture Fact Book, Chapter 2, it states, Americans consumed 152.4 pounds of sugar per person in the year 2000, (USDA.gov). In large part, this consumption is sugary sodas, sports drinks and energy beverages, as well as tasty treats like cakes, pies and cookies and that is not all, condiments like catsup, BQ Sauce and salad dressing are full of sugar. Sugar just makes things better. I drank an 11.5-ounce bottle of orange juice thinking it was a better choiceafter all, it was chalked full of vitamins, amazingly the bottle had a whopping 33 grams of sugarunbelievable right! Sugar it seems has become one of the staples in the American diet and with it an alarming increase in adult and childhood obesity. In the article Am I Overweight or Obese published by the American Obesity Association, it describes "overweight, as a condition in which a person's weight is 10%-20% higher than "normal," as defined by a standard height/weight chart. The article also suggested that a person is obese if they are more than twenty percent above their normal weight and morbidly obese if they are onehundred pounds or more above normal weight (Association, WebMD Medical Reference). Everywhere I go; it seems it has become the norm for people to be supersized. Obesity is at epidemic proportions and with it; other diseases are quickly increasing. According to the Statistic

Report, Volume 60, No.3, Heart disease is no longer a mans disease; it has become the number one killer of adult women, Reportedly killing 292,188 women in 2009, (Kenneth D. Kochanek). Not so long ago Type 2 Diabetes was not common, now it is a growing epidemic. In the article U.S. Diabetes Rates Climb Above 11%; Could hit 15% by 2015, written by Dan Witters, it suggest that Type 2 Diabetes has been on the rise, with a steady yearly percentage increase over the past ten years of reported incidence of diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes, (Witters). The article places enfaces on the increasing obesity rate as the number one culprit for this increase. However, there is hope, according to the USDA, sugar consumption has dropped slightly each year since 1999, (USDA.gov). Educational resources and public awareness campaigns have been on the increase in the last few years as well, providing vital tools in the endeavor to curtail the increasing numbers of Americans that will suffer or die from these debilitating and to some extent preventable disease. According to the American Heart Association, added sugar intake should be no more than150 calories or 9 teaspoons per day for men and 100 calories or 6 teaspoons per day for women (Assocation). As part of becoming more aware of how much added sugar we consumed daily, our Biology professor ask each of his students to keep track of the amount (in grams) of added sugar we ingested in a three day period. I must admit that I was surprised at how much added sugar I had eaten. In three days, I consumed an incredible three hundred and three grams of sugar or one-thousand two-hundred and twelve calories. My average was a hundred and one grams of added sugar per day. I now realized I was one of those people, those oblivious individuals who were trading quick and tasty treats over my healththat spoonful of sugar might have cost me much more than the price of a cookie. I had eaten hardly any nutrients in those three days. After tabulating the results for those three days worth of sugar I had to admit to myself that if I continue on this caloric diet I would end-up unhealthy, obese, depressed and most likely have heart disease or Type 2 Diabetes, this was not a good road I was traveling on. I have had an epiphany. Life should be full of quality and quantity and I intend to have both, so I threw my candy kisses in the trash. Wiser is really better.

Bibliography Assocation, American Heart. Added Sugars. n.d. 26 February 2014 <http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyDietGoals/ Added-Sugars_UCM_305858_Article.jsp>. Association, American Obesity. WebMD Medical Reference. 26 May 2012. 26 Feburuary 2014 <http://www.webmd.com/diet/diagnosing-obesity>. . WebMD Medical Reference. 26 May 2012. 26 Feburuary 2014 <http://www.webmd.com/diet/diagnosing-obesity>. Casey, Jojn. medicinenet. 2005. 26 February 2014 <http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56589&page=2>. Kenneth D. Kochanek, M.A.,Jiaquan XU, M.D., Sherry L. Murphy, B.S. Statistic Report, Volume 60, No. 3. 2009. 26 february 2014 <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf>. USDA.gov. USDA Agriculture Fact Book, Chapter 2. 2000. 26 February 2014 <http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf>. Witters, Dan. Gallup Well-Being. 27 October 2009. 26 February 2014 <http://www.gallup.com/poll/123887/u.s.-diabetes-rate-climbs-above-11-could-hit-152015.aspx>.