Sugar
The American Heart Association stated in an August 2009 report that an average American consumes 22 teaspoons of added sugar every day. “Added sugars” are those sugars and syrups that are added to foods or beverages during processing or preparation. Sugars that occur naturally in fruits, milk, and vegetables are not added sugars.
There is a school of thought that sugar fuels cancer cell growth; a concept that seems to have more credibility outside of the United States but that has its champions in the states as well. One is Patrick Quillin, PhD, RD, author of 15 books, including Beating Cancer with Nutrition and former vice president of Nutrition for Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
In 2009, researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah also deciphered part of the process by which tumor cells use more glucose (sugar) than normal cells, a fact that has been known since 1923. (Kaadige 2009) According to one of the study’s authors, their research discovered how to stop the use of glucose by tumor cells. The next step is to develop animal models to test the ideas about how their findings control cell growth. Then, the authors hope their research eventually leads to an effective treatment of cancer.
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.
Artificial Sweeteners
Aspartame
You may know it as Equal® or NutraSweet®, but aspartame is really a combination of two amino acids and methanol. For decades, scientists have been conducting studies and suggesting that aspartame causes cancer, but each time the FDA refused to accept the recommendation that the sweetener be banned. In 1970 a study suggested it caused brain tumors in rats; in 2005 an Italian study found that it caused lymphomas and leukemias in male and female rats. (Soffritti 2005) A 2006 study by the same Italian researchers exposed rats to aspartame in utero and found that the chemical caused leukemias, lymphomas, and breast cancer. (Soffritti 2006). Read more on aspartame
Cyclamate
This artificial sweetener, which is 30 to 50 times sweeter than sugar, was first introduced to the marketplace in the 1950s. It was used in diet foods until 1970, which is when it was banned in the United States after animal studies indicated that it causes cancer. Since then, animal studies have indicated that cyclamate or a byproduct does not cause cancer directly, but that it increases the potency of other carcinogens and can also damage the testes. Cyclamate is approved as a sweetener in more than 55 countries. Sweeteners produced by Sweet’N low and Sugar Twin for Canada contain cyclamate.
Dextrose
Dextrose is a form of glucose and occurs naturally in many foods, including fruit and honey. Food manufacturers add dextrose to many common packaged products that are high in sugar, such as frosting, cookies, crackers, and cake mixes, as well as breads, pretzels, and other foods. Dextrose adds empty calories to food and can contribute to tooth decay. Food producers usually use the word “dextrose” rather than “glucose” on food labeling because they think the public has negative associations with glucose. The body uses dextrose/glucose for energy.
Fructose
Fructose is a natural simple sugar that is also known as a monosaccharide. Fructose is one of the main kinds of sugars found in fruits, vegetables, and honey, and in its pure form has been used as a sweetener since the mid 1850s. Table sugar (sucrose) is a disaccharide because it is composed of two substances, an equal amount of fructose and glucose. Fructose is also added to many processed foods, including desserts, preserves, and dairy products. While consuming the small amount of fructose found in fruits and vegetables is not harmful, eating too much fructose at one time can overload the liver, which processes fructose. If the liver has difficulty processing fructose to be used as energy, it will instead make fats from the sugar and allow the fats to enter the bloodstream as triglycerides. High triglycerides are a risk factor for heart disease.
Neotame
This artificial sweetener, which was originally patented by Monsanto Co., is about 7,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than table sugar and 40 times sweeter than aspartame. Neotame contains all the dangerous ingredients found in aspartame along with others which join together to make this product so extremely sweet and potentially dangerous. One of those “other” ingredients is 3-di-methyl-butyl, which is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of most hazardous chemicals. Although Neotame is chemically related to aspartame, it is more heat stable, which means it can be used in cooking and baking. It was approved by the FDA in 2002 for use in items such as baked goods, frozen desserts, soft drinks, pudding and gelatin mixes, canned fruits, jams, jellies, and chewing gum. Some opponents of neotame point out that very few human-based safety studies were done for the product and that all the study participants were employees of the manufacturer. There is also evidence that some of the study subjects experienced mild to moderate allergic reactions, mostly headaches, from use of neotame.
Polydextrose
Polydextrose is a form of soluble fiber and a food additive that is used in foods to replace sugar, reduce calories, increase non-dietary fiber, and reduce fat content. Some of the foods polydextose can be found in are beverages, cakes, candies, breakfast cereals, gelatins, puddings, salad dressings, and frozen desserts. Polydextrose is synthesized from dextrose, to which is added sorbitol and a small amount of citric acid. Because polydextrose is both low in calories and fat, it is often used in low-calorie or diabetic foods. Polydextrose is also used as a thickening agent in foods such as puddings and dessert sauces. In large amounts or in sensitive people, polydextrose can cause abdominal cramping, bloating, and gas.
Saccharin
Saccharin is an artificial sweetener (Sweet ‘N Low) that is 350 times sweeter than sugar and is used in a wide variety of diet foods and as a tabletop sugar substitute. In 1977, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed that saccharin be banned because of animal studies showing it caused cancer, but Congress voted to allow its continued use as long as foods that contained it had a warning label. Several studies have shown that saccharin causes cancer of the uterus, ovaries, skin, blood vessels, and other organs in rodents. A National Cancer Institute study reported that use of saccharin and cyclamate (which has been banned) was associated with a higher incidence of bladder cancer.
In May 2000, the US Department of Health and Human Services removed saccharin from its list of cancer-causing substances, which meant manufacturers no longer needed to put a warning label on their products. This was followed by a December 14, 2010 release from the Environmental Protection Agency which stated that saccharin is no longer considered a potential hazard to human health. (EPA)
Reference
Environmental Protection Agency
Stevia
This naturally derived sweetener is obtained from a shrub (yerba dulce) that grows in Brazil, Paraguay, southeast Asia, and other places. It contains two closely related chemicals, stevioiside and rebaudioside A, and offers a natural alternative to the synthetic sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose. Although “natural” is often interpreted to mean “safe,” test results indicate otherwise. In animal studies, high dosages fed to rats reduced sperm production while large amount of a stevioside derivative caused fewer and smaller offspring in pregnant hamsters. In the lab, steviol can be transformed into a compound that can promote cancer. Stevia is marketed under several names, including Truvia and PureVia, with the nickname of rebiana. While toxicologists from the University of California Los Angeles and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) urged the FDA to reject the GRAS claims for this sweetener, it was granted that status in late 2008. The toxicologists and CSPI noted that several tests revealed that rebiana-related substances can cause mutations and damaged chromosomes or DNA, which are the starting points for cancer. Stevia/rebiana can now be found in a variety of beverages and low-calorie products, as well as a table top sweetener.
Sucralose
This artificial sweetener was approved in the United States in 1998. Sucralose (Splenda, Altern) is often used in combination with acesulfame-K and, unlike aspartame, it can be used in baked goods. Although the manufacturer, McNeil Nutritionals, used to advertise Splenda as being “made from sugar so it tastes like sugar,” this statement was challenged by the Sugar Association. Sucralose is actually a synthetic chemical made by chemically reacting sugar with chlorine. The presence of chlorine, which is considered a carcinogen, is thought to be the most dangerous component of sucralose. The digestion and absorption of sucralose is not understood because there are no long-term studies on humans. Lab animals fed sucralose have exhibited shrunken thymus glands, enlarged liver and kidneys, reduced growth rate, decreased red blood cell counts, aborted pregnancy, hyperplasia of the pelvis, decreased fetal body weights, and chronic diarrhea. Sucralose is used in more than 4,000 low-calorie foods and beverages and is also available as a table top sugar substitute.
Foods most likely to contain added sugars:
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Regular soft drinks |
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Candy |
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Cakes, pies, and cookies |
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Fruit drinks |
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Milk-based desserts and other foods, including ice cream, fruity yogurt, sweetened milk, puddings |
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Grain products such as cinnamon toast and sweet rolls |
Americans are consuming nearly one-half cup of sugar and 355 empty calories per day. This high intake of sugar, and the fact that the AHA noted a direct link between sugar consumption and the development of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, prompted the organization to urge women to reduce their consumption to no more than six teaspoons daily and for men, no more than nine.
How to identify added sugars on food labels
Sugars come in many forms and descriptions including the following:
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Brown sugar |
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Corn sweetener or corn syrup |
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Dextrose |
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Fructose and high-fructose corn syrup |
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Fruit juice concentrates |
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Glucose |
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Honey |
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Invert sugar |
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Lactose |
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Maltose |
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Malt syrup |
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Molasses |
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Raw sugar |
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Sucrose |
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Sugar |
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Syrup |
