Check out John Oliver’s great piece on the $5 billion sugar industry and our overconsumption of sugar.
There’s no sugar-coating it. Americans eat way too much sugar, 52 teaspoons (204 grams) a day, 152 pounds of caloric sweeteners a year, according to the USDA. Five times more than is good for us. In part, we can blame our brains, which are programmed to love sugar. In part, we can blame the food industry, which adds sugar to practically every processed food we eat, including ketchup, hot dogs and salad dressing.
According to the National Institutes of Health, our bodies need sugar to survive. But our bodies can get all the sugar we need, glucose, by breaking down carbohydrates, proteins and fats we eat. And, fruits, vegetables and milk provide us with sugar naturally. We do not need to eat sugar to feed our brains.
To learn more about the risks of too much sugar, read this post on foods with added sugar.
