It’s The Sugar, Stupid

Sugar makes us (and our kids) fat. But even when it doesn’t, it still makes us sick.

So says a study in the journal Obesity. According to the study, children didn’t used to commonly suffer from chronic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes. Nor did they exhibit risk factors for cardiovascular disease. But these diseases and risk factors are now prevalent in children.

Some of the kids who suffer from these diseases and risk factors are overweight or obese. But some of them aren’t. For those who aren’t overweight, sugar may still be to blame for their poor health. Because as it turns out, sugar causes health problems, even when it doesn’t lead to weight gain.

So when Kellogg’s defends its Frosted Flakes because one serving “with skim milk has just 150 calories” but fails to tell you that the second ingredient in its “Tony the Tiger” cereal is sugar, the cereal company is missing (obscuring?) the point. It’s the sugar itself, not just the calories, we should be concerned about.

Read the report

More here