The obesity epidemic is worsening,
with drastic consequences for the nation’s health. New figures published
this week show that the number of people with type 2 diabetes has gone
up by more than a third in the past six years.
In
2012 alone, 132,000 new cases were diagnosed. A condition that was once
a rarity is fast becoming a nationwide affliction. More than three
million people now suffer from the disease — almost 5 per cent of the
entire population.
What
lies behind the dramatic growth in this form of diabetes is our
excessive level of sugar consumption. While type 1 diabetes is not
linked to lifestyle and must always be treated with insulin, the driving
force behind our increasing weight problems and related ill-health is
this addiction.
The obesity epidemic is worsening, with drastic
consequences for the nation's health. New figures published this week
show that the number of people with type 2 diabetes has gone up by more
than a third in the past six years.
In today’s fast-paced consumer
society, dominated by junk food, processed produce, and convenience
meals, the heavyweight presence of sugar is all around us. It is
everywhere in the supermarket aisles, which are full of confectionery
and litre-bottles of fizzy drinks.
Every
airport and railway station is crowded with outlets providing
high-sugar snacks. Checkout staff in W.H. Smith offer you a bargain on
some vast slab of chocolate every time you buy a newspaper.
Almost every High Street in Britain is filled with fast-food outlets, whose greatest ability is to expand our waistlines.
Even
gyms, which are supposed to be devoted to better personal fitness, are
riddled with cafes and vending machines offering chocolate bars and
biscuits. Nor do people realise how much sugar they are really
consuming.
Many foods that are widely
marketed as good for you, such as breakfast cereals, fruit juices or
yogurts, are actually stuffed with sugar.
Flapjacks, often seen as a healthy alternative to sweets, are almost held together by sugar.
So-called
‘diet’ and fat-free products are just as bad. When you remove the fat
in natural foods during processing, you instantly create a taste
deficit. Fat is inherently flavoursome (compare full-fat milk and
skimmed), so manufacturers try to plug the flavour gap by adding sugar,
often in disguised forms. That brown, sticky-caramel, meaty taste in
ready meals, for instance, will come courtesy of sugar.
Today,
I looked at a packet of beef lasagne sold by one of the big supermarket
chains, and found that it contained sugar, molasses and both barley and
malt extract — all of these are sweet and highly fattening.
Sugar rush: The heavyweight presence of sugar is
all around us. It is everywhere in the supermarket aisles, which are
full of confectionery and litre-bottles of fizzy drinks.
This goes to the heart of the
problem. The public are ignorant about the risks of sugar partly because
they have been misled by the Government, health promotion campaigners
and nutrition experts.
For
years, the primary focus of the drive to reduce our weight has been,
not on sugar, but on saturated fats. We have been constantly told that,
to get fitter, we have to cut down on these fats, which are mainly found
in meat, cheese and dairy products.
‘Fat
makes you fat’ is the essence of this advice, encouraging the belief,
for example, that a sirloin steak is far worse for you than Coca cola.
But
this approach is completely wrong. When it comes to our obesity
epidemic, sugar is the real culprit. That is what truly makes us fat.
When
we eat sugar, our bodies produce the hormone insulin, which accelerates
fat storage and leads to weight gain. That is why it is so deadly.
Sugar consumption is the driving force behind our increasing weight problems and related ill-health
Just as importantly, when we eat
carbohydrates, like pasta, bread and cereals, our bodies metabolise them
as if they were sugar. So we then get the same production of insulin,
the same spike in our blood sugar levels and the same storage of fat.
Again,
this contradicts all the fashionable official advice that we should
base our meals on bulky, starchy foods as the route to a healthier
lifestyle. By following such advice, we are radically increasing our
sugar consumption and disrupting the proper functioning of our bodies.
That
is why people who eat a lot of pizzas or chips are so prone to extreme
weight gain: their bodies are effectively receiving frequent large
injections of sugar.
This process is seen at its worst with soft drinks.
Even
the most voracious eaters have a limit to the amount of food they can
consume, because the body produces a hormone called leptin which
regulates the appetite.
But
scientific evidence shows that our bodies are not programmed to deal
with sweet liquids, which seem to over-ride the production of leptin. So
the amount of sugary drinks we can consume is almost limitless.
There
are two other biological factors fuelling today’s sugar rush. The first
is the fact that sweets, food and carbohydrates — unlike saturated fats
— never leave us satisfied. Because they are digested so quickly, they
fill us up only briefly and soon lead to more hunger cravings.
That
is why it is far better to eat a full traditional breakfast of eggs and
sausages than a trendy breakfast of sugary cereal and skimmed milk.
The
analogy could be drawn with a domestic fire. A newspaper burns quickly
and impressively, but soon disappears and has to be quickly replenished
to keep the fire going. Wood and coal, the equivalent of fats and
protein, burn much more slowly — but their flames last longer.
The
second biological factor is that sugar is in itself addictive. Just
like a junkie or an alcoholic, the more we have, the more we want. When
the palette is dulled by over-consumption, an even greater sugar high is
needed.
That is one prime
reason why so many overweight people develop eating disorders and even
get withdrawal symptoms when they try to change their diet.
Tesco announced this week that it is to give £10
million to the campaign group Diabetes UK. But if Tesco really cared
about the problem, it would transform the type of stock it holds and the
layout of its stores.
There is also an economic
imperative at work here. In the midst of the continuing recession, we
have to face the fact that a diet based on good quality meat, fish,
vegetables and protein is more expensive than one filled with sugar and
carbohydrate.
It is
easier, if not healthier, for families struggling on a budget to feed
themselves with bulk buys such as economy pizzas and family-pack
takeaways.
The big
retailers, including the supermarkets and fast-food chains, know this.
They have a vested commercial interest in feeding our addiction to
sugar, pretending that they are doing us a favour by deluging us with
their special offers and phoney marketing ploys.
Sugar is in itself addictive. Just like a junkie or an alcoholic, the more we have, the more we want.
If they really had a sense of social responsibility, they wouldn’t be so eager to hype up their sugar-laden products.
It
is telling that the supermarkets constantly boast of their diversity of
choice to cater for every type of customer, with their gluten-free and
wheat-free products, yet they never seem to have a sugar-free aisle.
And
for sheer cynicism dressed up as public service, it is hard to beat
Tesco’s announcement this week that it is to give £10 million to the
campaign group Diabetes UK in order to raise awareness about the
disease.
If Tesco really
cared about the problem, it would transform the type of stock it holds
and the layout of its stores. Removing all the confectionary at the
checkouts might be a start, as would the withdrawal of buy-one,
get-one-free offers on multi-litre bottles of carbonated drinks.
Tobacco
used to be as prevalent in British society as sugary foods and drinks
are today. In the Fifties, incredibly, 80 per cent of all adults smoked.
But because of the health risks, cigarettes have now been marginalised
through punitive taxation, advertising bans, restrictions on sales and
public health campaigns.
As
this week’s statistics show, sugar is just as big a menace. We need
exactly the same kind of approach as has worked so well with smoking.
And we could start by imposing a 20 per cent tax on sugary drinks.
The retailers might bleat about consumer freedom, but in reality, they are holding our health to ransom with their greed.
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