I can speak for myself in that I am not a huge sweets person, but when I get the craving I can tackle a bit of chocolate, gummy snacks or ice cream. Right now I am staring at a Snickers bar that has been on my desk for going on 3 months now and I still really don't have a desire to eat it. Hopefully that trend continues.
As a high school teacher and a wrestling coach, I have become more aware of a growing trend in how things are shifting in terms of high school diets/eating habits. If it is green or "healthy" leave it alone, but if it has sugar, flavorings or comes in a crunchy plastic wrapper - it's all good. I tell my athletes on a regular basis that eating items that are from a vending machine is the equivalent of shoving a pile of garbage down the gullet called a mouth. Very quickly, they pointed out the Mountain Dew in my hand. Albeit, the soda is bad and potentially one of the worse things out there. They had a point, but failed to realize how their nutrition was affecting their ability to wrestle and more importantly their ability to live.
See we humans like sugar. It's sweet, found in a lot of really good tasting things, and hey it is ZERO fat!!! Right?!? All of these facts point to the truth, but how about the biochemistry behind it all? Excess sugar is stored as fat. We know this, we understand this and yet, we toss this information to the wind whenever the urge for a sweet treat is around.
I can't put it much better than Jamie Oliver does and frankly he is what I would consider an expert in terms of food preparation. I agree with most of the points made and applaud him for making these things more known to the world. School aged children are at the highest risk at poor eating habits, because they are perpetuated by their parents. Worse than that, eating healthy can be more expensive than grabbing a frozen TV dinner or the precooked meals that just need a quick dive into the closest microwave to be ready to eat. I know this because I am currently doing that transition. My food cost has gone up, but my energy levels have also gone up and I feel better after I work out. I can't want to have my next health screening to answer the question: How do you feel? Have you changed your diet? How much weight have you lost? Because, I am eating higher quality foods I know I am going to be able to lead a higher quality of life.
I know it is tough, I've spent 2-3 days cooking and making leftover plates so that I don't have to cook a lot into next week. It takes time, but I'd rather spend my time doing this than in a hospital bed or a doctor's office later on. I feel for the single parent working 60-80 hours a week to provide a house, meals, and everything else for their family. I will never knock on them for doing the best they can, but I would still encourage them to try and find time to teach their kids to cook and spend time at the dinner table.
Back to sugar, there is evidence for how bad sugar can really be on our diet. The article list is dealing with high fructose corn syrup (a chemically derived sugar), but it lends itself to the current sugar consumption that humans, more specifically Americans down in a given day. Anthropological research suggests that our ancestors didn't consume a lot of sugar and when they did it was opportunistic. Anecdotal evidence that I would have to eat nearly 8 feet of sugar cane to get the amount of sugar in a typical liter bottle of soda. Only, I couldn't get the fiber or other nutrient that the sugar cane would provide.
I can't tell you all the risks of high fructose corn syrup, but there is a lot of evidence mounting against the usage of such a chemical. It is scary to think that a product so regularly found may be linked to things like Autism, obesity, cancer, Diabetes, and learning deficiencies. For this guy, I am one day number 9 of no soda, no candy, and an overall reduction or removal of processed foods from a crunchy plastic bag.
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