Is this true?

Bottle_of_Smoke

Have a bag of sugar(siúcra) - on the side it says

"FACT: Detailed scientific studies have shown that sugar does not cause Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity or Hyperactivity"

"FACT: Sugar can be part of any balanced diet for people of all ages"

"FACT: There is NO scientific evidence to associate sugar with food allergies"

Then on the other side:

REALITY

Sugar is a naturally occuring carbohydrate whcih is present in most fruit & vegetables.

White sugar has no additives, preservatives or colourants added to it

A balanced diet should contain as wide a variety of foods as possible. There are no good or bad foods, only good or bad diets.

At the very best this is highly misleading but are their claims actually true?

Hal1

True, but its the intake of sugar in most food products these days that causes a concern, and is one of the things they will blaim for obesity etc.

eth0_

It's 100% true.
The problem with sugar, as with all things in life today, is the huge quantities it is consumed in.

Butter doesn't cause obesity or heart problems....unless you're eating a block of it a day (and plenty of people do, 'hidden' in their food').

Alcohol doesn't cause cirrohosis of the liver...unless you binge drink or are drinking every day.

r3nu4l

Op, it's pretty easy to portray all foods as 'healthy'. It's all down to good marketing which is why it's so hard for people to make informed choices these days.

For instance, many 'low-fat' foods are in fact laden with sugar to compensate for the lack of taste caused by reduced fat. So your 'healthy' food contains a lot of sugar.

Sugar is a carbohydrate (carb) which gives the body energy. When you eat the sugar you are taking in energy. If you do not use this extra energy you've taken in, then the body will store it...by converting it to fat. Store enough fat in your body and all of a sudden you are heading towards obesity.

So really, sugar isn't causing obesity, it's your intake of large amounts of it that is causing it to be converted to fat. Therefore you are causing yourself to become fat, not the 'innocent' sugar (that's the industry line on it anyway).

Problem is again that if you don't read labels or if you eat a lot of processed food you have no idea how much sugar, salt and fats (e.g. butter) are going into your foods. As your thread has shown, even reading the labels isn't enough anymore, you have to really work hard to educate yourself to ensure that you are eating right. Sigh.

Bottle_of_Smoke

thanks for the replies, just to clarify -

""FACT: Detailed scientific studies have shown that sugar does not cause Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity or Hyperactivity"

This was the bit I found most sinister - the rest is rather wordy & could probably be applied to plutonium.

So is there any connection between sugar intake & developing diabetes?