Americans eat 22 teaspoons of sugar a day

U.S. adults consume 22.2 teaspoons of sugar a day - or 355 calories - and reducing the amount of sugar can reduce weight, a U.S. food expert says. Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst, trend-watcher and creator of the Web site supermarketguru.com, says Americans eat more than double the daily recommended amount of sugar added to food. An appropriate amount for a woman with an energy requirement of 1,800 calories per day would be no more than 100 calories, or 6.25 teaspoons - from added sugar, while a man with a requirement of 2,200 calories per day should eat or drink no more than 150 calories from added sugar or 9.4 teaspoons, Lempert says. Added sugar is considered "discretionary calories," and diets high in added sugar are linked to obesity, high blood pressure, increased triglycerides and cardiovascular disease, the American Heart Association says. For those watching their weight or monitoring their glucose levels, trying to limit sugar consumption will be beneficial. In addition, Lempert suggests consuming as many fresh foods and minimally processed foods as possible with little or no added sugar, and if there is an added sugar try to find a product that does not list it first in the ingredients - UPI

Researchers find link between sugar, diabetes and aggression (USA)

"A spoonful of sugar may be enough to cool a hot temper, at least for a short time, according to new research. A study found that people who drank a glass of lemonade sweetened with sugar acted less aggressively toward a stranger a few minutes later than did people who consumed lemonade with a sugar substitute. Researchers believe it all has to do with the glucose, a simple sugar found in the bloodstream that provides energy for the brain. "Avoiding aggressive impulses takes self control, and self control takes a lot of energy. Glucose provides that energy in the brain," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University. "Drinking sweetened lemonade helped provide the short-term energy needed to avoid lashing out at others." The finding is more than just a medical curiosity, Bushman said. In two published papers, he and his colleagues did several studies showing that people who have trouble metabolizing, or using, glucose in their bodies show more evidence of aggression and less willingness to forgive others. The problem is that the number of people who have trouble metabolizing glucose - mainly those with diabetes - is rising rapidly. From 1980 through 2008, the number of Americans with diabetes has more than tripled (from 5.6 million to 18.1 million)" - EurekAlert

Added sugars increase heart-disease risk

"For decades, advice to ward off heart disease has promoted a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol as a means of keeping blood cholesterol levels in check. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests there's something else we need to do - scale back our intake of added sugars. Folks with the highest - versus the lowest – intake of refined sugar had higher blood triglycerides (fat) and triple the risk of having a low level of HDL (good) cholesterol. While it's long been know that carbohydrates can boost heart-disease risk by altering blood lipid levels, this is the first study to investigate the link between added sugars and blood lipids. Added sugars are defined as those put in during food processing and preparation to enhance flavour, add texture and assist browning. On ingredient lists they go by many names, including corn syrup, dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, glucose-fructose, honey and sucrose to name just a few"

Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages daily linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, increased healthcare costs

More Americans now drink sugar-sweetened sodas, sport drinks and fruit drinks daily, and this increase in consumption has led to more diabetes and heart disease over the past decade, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's 50th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention. Using the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Policy Model, a well-established computer simulation model of the national population age 35 and older, researchers estimate that the increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages between 1990 and 2000 contributed to 130,000 new cases of diabetes, 14,000 new cases of coronary heart disease (CHD), and 50,000 additional life-years burdened by coronary heart disease over the past decade. Sugar-sweetened soda, sport and fruit drinks (not 100 percent fruit juice) contain equivalent calories, ranging from 120 to 200 per drink, and thus play a role in the nation’s rising tide of obesity, researchers said. Previous research has linked daily consumption of these sugary beverages to an increased risk of diabetes, even apart from excessive weight gain - AHA

Sugar may decrease life expectancy

"A spoonful of sugar might help your life expectancy go down, new research suggests. US scientists found that adding just a small amount of glucose sugar to the bacteria diet of laboratory worms cut the creatures' lifespans by a fifth. The effect was traced to insulin signalling pathways - which exist in humans as well as simple worms. This raised the possibility that "glucose may have a lifespan-shortening effect in humans" the researchers wrote in the journal Cell Metabolism. On the other side of the coin, glucose is a vital source of energy without which cells cannot function. The tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans is a standard laboratory tool often used in studies of metabolism. Scientists led by Dr Cynthia Kenyon from the University of California at San Francisco, carried out experiments in which worms were fed small amounts of glucose. They found that giving sugar to the worms reduced their normal lifespan by about 20 per cent. Glucose affected insulin signals and genes and proteins previously shown to extend lifespan in C. elegans. In particular, a sugary diet blocked the transport of glycerol, part of the process by which the body produces its own glucose. Dr Kenyon said the findings may have implications for new diabetes drugs now in development that inhibit glycerol channels" - Press Association