"Added Sugars" Leads to Your Added Risk

The amount of sugar consumption in the United States has dramatically increased in the last fifty years.  For example, in 1960 the amount of sugar in a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola contained 12 grams of sugar, or three teaspoons.  A 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola in 2010 contains 39 grams of sugar, or over nine teaspoons (1 teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4.2 grams).  From this example, we can see that this increase in sugar intake is in the form of “added sugars,” most commonly sucrose (table sugar) or high fructose corn syrup.  Unfortunately, the rise in sugar consumption has also correlated with an increase in the incidences of obesity, diabetes, and dental caries.   The most recent dietary data we have shows that more Americans over the age of two consume almost 16% of their total daily calories in the form of these added sugars.[1]The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that only 5% of our total energy expenditure come from added sugars.  That means based on a 2000-calorie diet, which is a typical caloric requirement for an average woman, only 100 calories or 25 grams may come from added sugars.  Based on height, weight and activity level, your children may have even lower caloric requirements and hence lower “added sugar” limitations (To read the AHA article on sugar and carbohydrates including the guidelines for added sugars please click here).

An article just published in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, on April 21, 2010, reported some striking findings between the amount of “added sugars” consumed and the effect on blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.   (To read the full article click here).  The study,which took place at Emory University, showed that individuals who ate the most added sugars a day had higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels compared to those who ate fewer added sugars a day, placing these individuals at a higher risk for heart disease.[2] What was even more interesting is that the individuals who ate the lower amount of added sugars tended to eat higher amounts of dietary fats and still had lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels compared to the population of individuals who ate large amounts of “added sugars!"    Rachel K. Johnson, PhD, MPH, RD, of the University of Vermont in Burlington, explained that “we always thought of saturated fat in the diet as the culprit in terms of the dietary risk factors for heart disease, [however] just lowering your fat and not thinking about what you replace it with is not putting you in a good place."  

Trying to remove “added sugars” from our diet may seem close to impossible especially if trying to comply with the AMA guidelines stated above.  Imagine your child’s breakfast - one cup of Honey Nut Cheerios cereal with an 8-ounce glass of chocolate milk.   If you add up the sugars in the cereal and the chocolate milk you get a combined total of 24 grams of sugar.   That is almost the daily limitation of “added sugars” for the average adult.   Remember, the guidelines for “added sugars” would be even smaller for a child, so by the time breakfast is finished, your child has eaten beyond his or her daily quota.

To decrease the amount of “added sugars” in your family diet begin by just recognizing how much sugar you and your family eat in one meal, what types of sugars are consumed in your home, and who is craving and using sugars most often.   Then make small, subtle changes each week to reduce the amount of sugar in your home.  Here are some helpful guidelines to help you begin the process:      

1.)   Begin reading nutrition labels

Look for the amount of “sugars” in one serving on each nutrition label.  These are the “added sugars” that we want to reduce.

2.)   Keep a sugar log for you, your spouse, and each child:

Start calculating the amount of sugars in one meal, and then calculate how much one is eating per day.

3.)   Start buying foods that are lower in sugar content or choose foods that are “unsweetened.”

4.)   Reduce the amount of sugar used in cooking or baking by finding healthier replacements such as unsweetened applesauce or natural vanilla/almond extracts and spices to enhance flavor. 

 

Spiritual Nutrition

One of the most significant aspects of the holiday of Pesach is the search and destruction of chametz, breads, grains and leavened products, from our physical possession.  From a thorough cleaning ritual to the nullification of any remaining crumbs, we mentally and physically separate ourselves from a common food item that is normally a lunchbox staple and create a temporary reality as if it doesn’t exist.   How can the process of removing a pantry commodity lead to a spiritual elevation and soulful cleansing?

Puffed-up chametz is symbolically associated with ideas of inflated ego, pride and arrogance.  These negative character traits can disable a person’s ability to become close with Ribbano shel Olam and can block the Divine light.   Whereas the flat matzah alludes to humility and the proper avodah to Hashem.    In fact, the Sages state (Berachos 17a), “It is obvious and known before You that it is our desire to do Your will – but what prevents us?  The ‘leaven in the dough’.”  Furthermore, in  “The Heritage Haggadah”, Eliyahu Kitov expounds on the numerical values of the Hebrew words chametz, 138, compared to matzah which is 135.   The difference represents the three bad character traits that according to Pirkei Avos, remove a person from this world – jealousy, thirst for honor, and desire for physical pleasures. 

Living in a country of abundance, we are constantly faced with lavish excessiveness.  With our local supermarket shelves overloaded with high sugar snacks, tempting treats, and other food commodities, we constantly are in battle with our physical urges to resist over buying and over eating.   This indulgent behavior, otherwise known as lustfulness or gluttony, is not only detrimental to our physical health but also our spiritual wellbeing and becoming aware and making steps to correct his behavior will benefit you not only in this world, but in the world to come.  

Gaining an awareness of proper eating goes beyond the nutritional content of food, but lies in a deeper understanding of one’s motivations and intentions behind our urges to eat and that relationship to one’s spiritual derech or pathway.   In Yoel Chapter 2 verse 26 it is written, “And you shall eat abundantly, and be satisfied, and you shall praise the name of Hashem”.   Eating must serve the purpose of dispensing proper nourishment not only to our bodies, but also to our souls.  The opposite of purposeful eating is gluttonous eating which is eating for simply the physical enjoyment of food and without regard to our physical or spiritual health.   Maimonides discusses that the number one cause of all disease is due to lustful or gluttonous eating. 

In Devarim Chapter 8 verse 3, it states, “… that not by bread alone does man live, but rather by everything that utters from the Mouth of Hashem does man live.”  Every creation in this world has a divine spark, uttered into its physical form at the time of creation including each vitamin, mineral, and nutrient found in the food that we eat.   The act of eating may be seen as standing at the spiritual crossroads where the physical and spiritual coincide.  The body requires sustenance in order to function and the soul has the power to direct the energy derived from this sustenance and to use it in the pursuit of a higher goal.  Like the way our bodies can extract vitamins from a piece of fruit, so too can our neshemas withdraw and utilize the holy sparks that exist in the food.  In this way, one can understand how food not only sustains our bodies, but also nourishes our souls and through the act of eating we can raise the mundane world to a level of holiness.   However, one can only achieve this complete physical and spiritual utility of the food when we eat with proper intention and direct our eating for the purpose of fueling our body to nourish the soul.  As is clearly states in Misheli (13:25), “A righteous person eats to satisify his soul”, we too must work toward eating with the appropriate intentions. 

There is no better time than during the month of Nissan to foster the practice of proper eating habits.  During the Pesach seder, we must collectively re-experience the Exodus out of Egypt.   From this, we may access the unique power to become liberated of our own personal mitzrayim or individual constraints, including that of gluttonous eating or eating to merely satisfy our body’s desires and cravings.   A five stage horizontal progression outlines the levels in which a person should constantly work toward to gain the most spiritual nutrients out of our food.  Because the arrows are double sided, one can constantly return back and forth from one level to another.  

 

 

Level	Kavod	Kashrut	Brachot	Nourish	Diet
Description	Eating carefully and respectfully	Keeping and upholding the laws of kashrut	Reciting proper brachas	Eating for the sake of fueling the body to nourish the soul	Choosing foods that support health and avoiding foods that lead to disease
Example	Am I chewing my food slowly?	Did I carefully wait the appropriate time to eat a milchig meal after becoming fleishig?	Did I remember to bench after eating bread?	Do I take another bite of food because I need to or because I want to?	Which lunch should I order to promote heart health?

 

 

During this holiday season, may we merit to remove the chametz from our actions and behaviors, and properly align ourselves to the will of Hashem.   And May we be charged into a state of accessing the great potential of achieving our personal redemption.    Hag Kasher v’Sameach! 

 

Concerned About Getting the Swine Flu?  Avoid Refined Sugar! 

Due to the swine-flu epidemic and many other illnesses that are leading to major school absences, schools are tightening their sick-school policies.  Although comforting to know that public institutions are placing strict guidelines on standard public health measures,  the importance of diet as a method of preventing disease, more specifically the distribution and consumption of sugar in school classrooms and dinner tables must also be tackled.   At times, children may get full on empty snacks and treats and leave their main meals, filled with substantial calories, uneaten.  These types of practices need to be intervened in order to protect the welfare of our children's continued health and well being. 

 

To maintain a germ free environment, we must not only practice preventative measures such as waiting 24 hours before returning to school from fever, but also and maybe even more important is to promote a physical environment in which disease, specifically viruses and bacteria, are unable or less likely to thrive.  By eliminating sugar, we are removing a source of bodily toxins that limit immune function and promote disease.  First, sugar directly suppresses our immune system and impairs our immune defenses against infectious diseases.  One reason this happens is because sugar interferes with the absorption of essential micronutrients such as chromium and copper and these are necessary in our immune cell function, the cells that fight and kill bacteria and viruses.  Secondly, viruses and bacteria utilize simple sugars as energy.  When you reduce the amount of sugar availability in the body, you are cutting off the food supply for germs and hence their survival.  Teachers and parents must become more educated on the dangers of feeding children sugar, ESPECIALLY during a delicate period in which the body requires all of its immune fighting resources to defend itself from dangerous and toxic organisms.   Let’s work together in optimizing our first line of defense – our children’s immune systems and create nutritiously optimum environments that promote immune system resilience rather than immune system suppression. 

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