Tag: sugar

Sugar Sugar Time (And I Don’t Mean Sweets!)

Thanks to talented journalist Dana Kennedy — creator of the clever blog, A Year Without Candy — for reminding me of the fun pop song, Sugar, Sugar by the Archies.
This song makes me smile. I can’t begin to remember how many times radio hosts have played this song before they interviewed me about my book Sugar Shock!
Please enjoy this. And of course, I’m not posting this to make you think about sweets (as in the sugary kind) but to think about having (non-sugary) sweetness in your life — something I invite you to find, get and create.
Dana 52 And, readers, please join me in congratulating Dana for making it 90 days without candies, cookies, etc. Way to go, Dana!
See my interview with Dana here, in which she articulately shared why she’s choosing to go A Year Without Candy.
Would you like to join her? Can you go A Year Without Candy or another unhealthy substance or activity?

Michelle Obama Gets Food Companies to Act

Thank to Michelle Obama’s crusade to combat children’s obesity, major food companies such as PepsiCo and Kraft Foods are changing their products.
She is, in fact, “defining defining her role as first lady by taking on the $600 billion food and beverage industries in a quest to end childhood obesity within a generation,” observes Kate Andersen Brower of Bloomberg Business Week, in an artticle entitled, “Michelle Obama’s ‘Spotlight’ on Obesity Enlists Kraft, PepsiCo.”
“Her lobbying of companies to make products healthier, labels easier to read and limit marketing of unhealthy foods to kids is paying off,” Brower observes.
A month after she began her campaign, “PepsiCo Inc., the world’s second-largest food and beverage company, pledged to stop selling full-sugar soft drinks in schools by 2012.” In addition, Kraft Foods Inc., the maker of Oreo cookies and Oscar Mayer lunch meats, jumped on board, announcing that it would further reduce the sodium content of its products..
Reporter Brower points out that the first lady’s efforts are part of a “movement to recast what the food industry is selling,” according to David Kessler, who was Food and Drug Administration commissioner from 1990 to 1997. “She puts the spotlight on the issue like few others can,” Kessler told Brower.
The American Beverage Association — which represents soda companies — has now joined Michelle Obama’s effort by running a national ad, which claims that the industry is committed to reducing beverage calories in schools by 88 percent.
Things started happening after a well-publicized meeting in Washington on March 16 when the first lady addressed members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents major food companies such as Kraft and PepsiCo. At that GMA meeting, Obama urged the companies to reduce sugar, fat and salt in their products and “to move faster and to go farther” to make them healthier.
The first lady has “accelerated our focus,” Kraft’s president of health and wellness, Rhonda Jordan, told the Bloomberg Business Week reporter Brower, who then quotes Patrick Basham, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based research group that promotes libertarian policies.
Basham believes that the first lady’s anti-obesity efforts are “in sync with public skepticism about `the motives of big business’ in the wake of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression.” He also believes that the recent moves by the companies may be an effort to prevent government crackdown.
“The food industry is terrified of being either legislated out of business or so regulated they won’t be able to do what they want,” Basham told Brower.
What’s intriguing is that Michelle Obama became concerned about child nutrition for personal reasons.
She told audiences at a National PTA Conference in Arlington, Virginia, on March 10, that she got a “wakeup call” when her pediatrician voiced concern about her family’s eating habits.
While I applaud the first lady’s efforts, as always, no matter what changes the large food companies institute, I encourage people to reduce or even eliminate their consumption of processed foods.
Vegetables and fruits that come courtesy of Mother Nature are best for our bodies. Plus, they taste better — something you’ll discover after you cut back on processed carbs.
We just don’t need to consume large quantities of packaged foods that usually have

Sugar & Its Dangers Hit the News, Thanks to Dr. Robert Lustig’s YouTube Video & Nightline

Sugar and its dangers are in the news again, thanks to ABC’s popular show, Nightline, which, last night, aired a compelling story spotlighting sugar’s role in the obesity crisis.
In his “Sugar Wars” piece, correspondent John Donovan offers a fascinating look at the views of esteemed pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig, whose YouTube video, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” has garnered more than a quarter of a million hits to date.
In this Nightline segment — which you can watch below — Donovan calls Dr. Lustig “a man at war with sugar,” because he argues that too much fructose and not enough fiber are to blame for our obesity crisis.
“Fructose is the cause of the current epidemic,” says Dr. Lustig, director of UCSF’s Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Clinic and UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology.
Nightline correspondent Donovan also includes quotes from the the pediatric endocrinologist about leptin’s role in obesity; fructose’s role in metabolic syndrome; and the fact that low-fat foods such as SnackWells cookies and fruit-flavored yogurt are filled with sugar.
In the Nightline piece, Donovan made an effort to make his piece unbiased by allowing Dr. Lustig’s ideas to be criticized by three pro-sugar advocates — one from the American Beverage Association (formerly called the National Soft Drink Association) and two from the Corn Refiners Association, including a cardiologist, who has done studies funded by PepsiCo, the manufacturer of sugar-filled soft drinks.
Understandably, correspondent John Donovan seems to be like millions of Americans, who have a sweet tooth. In fact, the reporter readily admits that strolling with Dr. Lustig at San Francisco’s Pier 30 (a hot spot filled with sugary foods) can be “at times, well, a bit of of a downer. Because we love sugar, don’t we, most of us?”
Donovan is absolutely correct in his assessment. Most Americans — and people around the world — are so keen on sugar that they imbibe it to their detriment. Unfortunately, the Nightline reporter did not mention that obesity is only part of the sugar story.
The average American’s sugar consumption — about 170 pounds per year per person — also has been linked with heart disease, cancer, severe PMS, memory loss, depression, fatigue, headaches, infertility, low libido, polycystic ovary syndrome and many other ailments.
In addition, regretfully, the Nightline piece did not point out that Dr. Lustig is in very good company. His views are shared by many of us concerned health advocates. For instance, esteemed pediatric endocrinologist Dr. David Ludwig — who was previously interviewed along with me for a “CBS News Sunday Morning” segment, “Is America Too Sweet on Sugar” — is among those frightened by the massive consumption of sugar, particularly high fructose corn syrup, in this country and around the world.
Others sounding the sugar alarm include:
* Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard;
* Dr. Nancy Appleton, author of Suicide by Sugar: A Startling Look at Our #1 National Addiction;
* Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, who appears on my Gab with the Gurus Radio Show on March 31 to discuss his new book, Beat Sugar Addiction Now! ;
* Dr. Richard Johnson, author of The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That is Making You Fat and Sick.); and
* Myself, author of SUGAR SHOCK! How Sweet and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life–And How You Can Get Back on Track.
Now, I invite you to watch the eye-opening Nightline segment below.

Sugary Soft Drinks Linked to Pancreatic Cancer

More and more these days, we hear about medical studies, which point to the massive dangers — sometimes potentially deadly — of consuming empty-calorie, sugar-filled soft drinks.
Yet another new medical study now points to excess sugar as the likely reason for potentially deadly pancreatic cancer.
This study — published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention — found, upon studying 60,524 Chinese adults, that those who drank at least two sugary sodas a week had an increased risk of developing cancer of the pancreas, as Yahoo News reports.
This study was the first time researchers studied Asians to learn how soda and juice may play a role in developing pancreatic cancer. It make sense to look at Asians, because they are increasingly adopting Western-like, processed-filled diets and sedentary lifestyles. Previous studies examined Europeans or Americans.
As for the new study, researchers believe the sweet stuff is to blame for the pancreatic cancer.

Eat All the Pancakes You Want & Leave Happy, Ad Says. Huh? Wrong!

Frankly, I don’t get it. Here we are in the midst of a horrific nationwide obesity epidemic, and a certain national chain is now enticing people and tempting them via a TV ad to eat can eat all the pancakes they want and leave happy!
You’ve got to be kidding!
Eating as many pancakes as your heart desires will not make you happy!
Isn’t it more accurate to say: “Eat all the pancakes you want, especially ones smothered in butter and syrup, and leave bloated, feeling gross and angry at yourself for pigging out!”
After you eat a pile of pancakes, you’ll probably say, “Ugh! I can’t believe I ate all those pancakes! I’m so unhappy!”

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Sour Surprise

Do you eat prepared, processed cereals, breads, pasta, yogurt, tomato sauce, crackers, frozen foods, pickles, canned vegetables or fruits?
If so, then you’re probably consuming a lot of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) without even knowing it.
Did you know that most people who eat processed, packaged foods are consuming a lot of sweeteners, especially high fructose corn syrup?
And did you know that when take in too many sugars, especially HFCS, you can gain weight, as well as develop heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and numerous other life-shortening illnesses?
Learn more about HFCS in a mere three minutes by watching the 3 Minute Ad Age interview I gave last year.
I just found out today that the video interview about HFCS is posted on YouTube so please spread the word to your friends and loved ones.
Find out more about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners by getting my book SUGAR SHOCK!
You also can learn more about HFCS by visiting the new blog, Sweet Disguise, which kindly featured my book and 3 Minute Ad Age Interview today.

Grateful for You

It’s Connie here to tell you that I’m VERY grateful to you, dear readers.
I really appreciate your support so that I can continue to serve you.
Now that it’s the holiday season, I feel that I want to tell you how grateful I am.
Grateful, as www.Dictionary.com tells us, means you’re “warmly Or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received.”
YOU, dear readers, are so important to me.
Because of YOU and 1) your willingness to learn, 2) your open-mindedness, 3) your desire to have a happier, healthier life and 4) your spreading the word about this Sugar Shock Blog, my book SUGAR SHOCK! and my coaching services, I can continue to help YOU and many more to break free of this health-harming, mood-dampening addiction to sugar, refined carbs, artificial sweeteners and other bad habits
(or what I call babits™).
So thank you, YOU magnificent creature, YOU.
I love you, and as “Think Big” author Michael Port puts it, “not in a weird way.”
YOU Special One, I’m also here to remind you to remember that YOU are a wonderful, special, dazzling person with so great qualities.
So for the holidays through the end of the year, I invite you to remember to treasure your glorious body, which has been here for you no matter what.
When was the last time you thanked your body for all it does for you?
Let me gently suggest that you think twice before putting junk foods and sugar-filled, calorie-packed drinks into your body this holiday season, OK?
Before you slip a sweet “treat” into your mouth or nosh on fake, junk foods (that are artificially sweetened or filled with dyes and other additives), why not ask yourself, “What does my wonderful body really want?”I do hope that this post inspires you to treat your body like the temple it is. Wishing you all a fabulous rest of the year!

Agave: What’s the Scoop About this Sweetener?

Agave_syrup1One of the most frequently asked questions I get is about agave, the honey-colored liquid that’s popular with many health-minded people.
Inevitably, the subject of agave comes up whenever I lecture or take on a new client.
Generally, these health-minded people have heard wonderful things about agave, especially that it’s low on the glycemic index.
You, too, as a health-minded person — I assume you are since you’re reading this blog — may want to know:
* Is agave safe?
* Can I use agave as a sugar substitute?
For those of you who are fans of agave, my short answer is this: I don’t recommend it.
Learn more about agave here.