Roman Espejo - What Should We Eat?

Judy Galens, Manager, Frontlist Acquisitions

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Espejo, Roman, 1977- editor.

Title: What should we eat? / Roman Espejo, book editor.

Description: Farmington Hills, Mich.: Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning, [2016] | Series: At issue | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015029477 | ISBN 9780737773903 (hardback) | ISBN 9780737773910 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Nutrition--Juvenile literature. | Health--Juvenile literature. | BISAC: JUVENILE NONFICTION / Health & Daily Living / Diet & Nutrition. Classification: LCC RA784 .W488 2016 | DDC 613.2--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015029477

Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 20 19 18 17 16

1. Top Ten Reasons to Go Organic
Renee Loux

3. Eating Red Meat Is Not a Healthy Choice
Eugenia Killoran

5. Fish: Friend or Foe?
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

6. People Should Not Eat More Fish
Environmental Working Group

7. People Should Not Eat Fast Food
Joseph Mercola

8. New Fast-Food Restaurants OfferHealthy Menus
Shan Li

9. Six Truths About a Gluten-Free Diet
Consumer Reports

10. Insects Should Be a Part of Peoples Diets
Aaron T. Dossey

11. Insects Should Not Be a Part of Peoples Diets
Brian Tomasik

A mericans have a serious sweet tooth, according to a 2014 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. It found that 71.4 percent of adults consume more than 10 percent of daily calories from added sugars in food and beverages each day. Consumption of added sugar, including all sugars added in processing or preparing foods, among Americans aged 2 years or older increased from an average of 235 calories per day in 1977-1978 to 318 calories per day in 1994-1996. This change was mainly attributed to the increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages,1 states the study. Despite decreases in consumption, it purports that Americans have too much of the sweetener: Although the absolute and percentage of daily calories derived from added sugars declined between 19992000 and 2007-2008, consumption of added sugars remained high in US diets, especially among children.2

The most pressing issue about sugar is that its blamed for the rise in worldwide obesity. Similarly, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health singles out the added sugar in sugar-sweetened beverages as the culprit: Rising consumption of sugary drinks has been a major contributor to the obesity epidemic.3 It states that in a twenty-year study of 120,000 men and women, those who added a twelve-ounce serving of a sugary drink to their diets every day gained more weight over timeon average, an extra pound every 4 yearsthan people who did not change their intake. The school contends that people who drink this liquid candy do not feel as full as if they had eaten the same calories from solid food and do not compensate by eating less. It is believed that the body has difficulty converting the fructose in sugar into glucose, which is consequently stored as fat. This fat is not used as energy immediately, which accounts for the lack of feeling full and eventual weight gain.

Additionally, sugar is speculated to increase the chance of dying from heart disease. The JAMA Internal Medicine study, for example, purported that participants who consumed between 10 to less than 25 percent of calories from sugar had a 30 percent higher risk of heart disease. [F]or those who consumed 25% or more of calories from added sugar, the relative risk was nearly tripled,4 the study warns.

Finally, theres having a sweet tooth and the risk of tooth decay. A 2014 study published in BMC Health concluded that sugar is its only cause. Only 2% of people at all ages living in Nigeria had tooth decay when their diet contained almost no sugar, around 2g per day. This is in stark contrast to the USA, where 92% of adults have experienced tooth decay,5 maintains study author Aubrey Sheiham, emeritus professor of dental public health at University College London.

Action on Sugar, a British group of health experts, argues that people do not need to eat it, period. Added sugar in our diet is a very recent phenomenon... and only occurred when sugar, obtained from sugar cane, beet and corn, became very cheap to produce. No other mammal eats added sugar and there is no requirement for added sugar in the human diet,7

In fact, The Sugar Association declares that sugar is an essential ingredient. The simple, irrefutable fact is this: sugar is a healthy part of a diet. Carbohydrates, including sugar, are the preferred sources of the bodys fuel for brain power, muscle energy and every natural process that goes on in every functioning cell.8 Furthermore, it disagrees with the argument that sugar is a greater cause of obesity than other substances. With only 15 calories per teaspoon, sugar is no more fattening than any other 15 calories. Like all carbohydrates, the body converts sugar into fuel quickly. Fats, on the other hand, are stored in fat cells to be used later, explains the association.

Of course, sugar is not the only thing to serve up controversy with each serving. Entire dietssuch as going organic or gluten-free as seen in recent yearsare based on eliminating certain kinds of foods entirely. This anthology, At Issue: What Should We Eat?, investigates what foods and ingredients divide nutritionists, activists, researchers, and consumers alike.