for wanting to overcome their love of sugar. There is a range of other medical conditions that are aggravated or even caused by eating too much sugar. The sugar industry disputes this and, to be fair, we’ll tell you what they say so you can make your own mind up. We think the facts speak for themselves but it’s up to you to decide whether you think the pursuit of giving up sugar is a worthwhile one.
OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY
• Nearly two-thirds of men and over half of all women in the UK are now overweight
• One in five of us is obese – at least 2–3 stones overweight
• Two-thirds of adults over 45 are overweight or obese
• Almost 1 in 10 6-year-olds and almost 1 in 6 15-year-olds is obese
• Obesity is linked to around 30,000 deaths a year through heart disease, strokes and diabetes
As you can see, obesity is a huge problem in the UK, and it’s on the increase all over the world. The level of obesity has gone up three times in the past 20 years, and it’s still rising. At this rate, one in four adults will be obese by 2010 and one in three by 2020. Just imagine it – as you sit with two of your friends or family members, one of you will be not just overweight but obese.
But excess weight doesn’t just mean not being able to fit into the clothes you want – it can seriously affect your health, too. Among other things, it puts us at greater risk of diabetes, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke and some cancers. In fact, recent reports suggest that obesity may soon overtake cigarette smoking as a serious health risk. The International Obesity Task Force estimates that 1.7 billion people across the world may be at risk of weight-related health problems.
The standard measurement for weight is the body mass index (BMI), which is weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared:
For example, if you weigh 10 stone and you are 5 feet 6 inches tall, you would work out your BMI by finding your weight in kilos (63kg) and your height in metres (1.68m):
Overweight is a BMI of 25–30 while obese is 30–40. So, for example, someone 5 feet 6 inches tall (1.68m) becomes obese at 13 stone 4 pounds (84kg) and morbidly obese at 17 stones 7 pounds (110kg). Obesity becomes ‘morbid’ when it significantly increases the risk of one or more obesity-related health conditions or serious diseases.
A simpler way of measuring your health, however, is by your waistline. The World Health Organization recommends a limit for waist circumference of 102cm and 88cm in men and women respectively. Want to know how to measure yourself and what this means? Visit the National Obesity Forum’s Waist Watch Action Campaign website at www.nationalobesityforum.org.uk and visit the Public Info area.
The Role of Sugar
You’d be hard-pressed to find a doctor who’ll say a diet high in sugar is a good thing and doesn’t increase your risk of putting on weight. The problem is that high sugar consumption coupled with increasingly low activity levels (as we now have in the UK) equals weight gain. Recent research published in the British Medical Journal found that when children avoided cans of pop, obesity levels fell, but it rose among those who kept on drinking them. Excess sugar consumption can increase insulin levels, leading to overweight and obesity plus an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and other conditions we’ll tell you about in this chapter.
DIABETES
• Diabetes affects 1.4 million people in England
• Diabetes UK says there may be as many as another million people who have diabetes but don’t realize it – the ‘missing million’
• The number of people being diagnosed with diabetes increases each year
• It’s estimated that five per cent of all NHS expenditure is on diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is where the body fails to produce enough insulin or doesn’t know how to use the insulin it has made. It used to be called ‘late’ or ‘adult onset’ diabetes because the average age of diagnosis is around 52. But rising levels of obesity has led to Type 2 diabetes being seen increasingly in younger people – even children.
Diabetes UK says the fact that as a nation we are increasingly overweight and less active is key to the rise in diabetes. Central body fat – being ‘apple shaped’ – is strongly linked to insulin resistance, where the body produces insulin but isn’t able to use it properly. Studies show that diabetes increases the risk of ill health from conditions such as heart disease, stroke and kidney failure and shortens lifespan. One study says Type 2 diabetes doubles or trebles the risk of dying prematurely.
The Role of Sugar
Although laboratory studies have failed to show a direct link between diabetes and normal sugar consumption, diabetes is linked to obesity which is, in turn, linked to sugar. And as our nation gets fatter, so our levels of Type 2 diabetes increase. Also, very high levels of sugar consumption (more than 200g per day) are considered a possible risk factor for developing diabetes.
SYNDROME X
Research at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2002 revealed that one in five British people may suffer from a condition called Syndrome X (also known as ‘sugar overload disorder’). With this condition, sufferers have constantly high blood-sugar levels because of a sugary diet. As a result, they have raised levels of fats (triglycerides) but low levels of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol in the blood, which increases the risk of heart disease. Importantly, they also have insulin resistance where the sugar-regulating hormone insulin becomes less capable of removing glucose from the blood. Instead it is stored as fat around the waist and upper body.
The result? If untreated, there’s an increased risk of developing Type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. Professor Gerald Reaven of Stanford University, California, first coined the term Syndrome X in 1988. He called it the ‘silent killer’ because its early stages often go unnoticed and many people don’t even know they have it.
The Role of Sugar
Dr Victor Zammit of the Hannah Research Institute in Ayr, Scotland, has discovered that Syndrome X may be linked to high-calorie sugary snacks and drinks. If eaten often enough, these high-sugar foods can lead to constantly raised insulin levels without giving the body a break in between. Eventually, this overwork may hinder the ability of the pancreas to produce sufficient insulin, leading to problems such as Type 2 diabetes.
In his book Fat Land, Greg Critser uses the ‘doorbell analogy’ to describe this breakdown – ‘… it would be as if one constantly rang one’s neighbour’s doorbell and then ran away; eventually the neighbour would stop coming to the door’. In other words, after overproducing insulin to cope with constantly high sugar levels, eventually the pancreas will stop bothering. A diet high in hidden sugar and refined carbohydrates can also lead to Syndrome X and further complications. Excess fat can make insulin resistance worse and cause insulin levels to rise.
CANCER
• One in three people will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime
• It is estimated that one-third of all cancers are caused by diet
• Bowel cancer is the second most common cancer in women, with 16,800 new cases being diagnosed each year
• Researchers predict that the rise in obesity and overweight