
In America today one third of adults and one fifth of children are obese. This epidemic is caused by a handful of contributing factors including overeating, high fat diets, high caloric intake, and inactivity. The real culprit, however, may be sugar. Many people do not realize how much sugar they consume on a daily basis. The American Heart Association's guidelines recommend no more than six to nine teaspoons of sugar daily, while Americans consume, on average, forty teaspoons. This is due primarily to the hidden forms of sugar, which are unrecognizable to the average consumer. Not only does sugar come in many forms, but it can also be labeled in over sixty different ways. Additionally, many of those terms are scientific and not familiar to the average person reading the label. Labeling has also become a huge factor in how people choose their food. The food industry has recognized this and capitalized on it. Many people buy what they believe to be healthy as a result of advertising and marketing gimmicks. Finally, the way that sugar is processed in the body is different than other foods and it can lead to obesity and other major health problems. Sugar has harmful affects on humans and is correlated with the obesity epidemic and the food industry in America.

First, one must understand what sugar really is and how it is digested in the human body and brain. The three main types of sugar are glucose, fructose, and sucrose. Many people do not understand that they have different jobs and effects. Glucose is the body's preferred energy source, and is more commonly known as blood sugar (Facts about Sugar). Most carbohydrates that one consumes will turn into glucose and aid in metabolism. Insulin is secreted when there are high levels of glucose and it helps the glucose to infiltrate the cells for efficient use of energy. Processed starches are immediately digested into glucose, so eating a bowl of corn flakes and eating a bowl of sugar are metabolically the same thing (Fed Up). Fructose is the sugar that is found in natural produce. It is metabolized very quick in the liver and produces more fat than glucose does. The following quote accurately describes why fructose fails to keep one full. "Fructose generates greater insulin resistance than other foodstuffs, and that fructose calories, therefore, fail to blunt appetite in the same way as other foods" (Norris). Sucrose separates into glucose and fructose when it is digested and they are used in the same ways, but simultaneously. Glucose is used first for energy and then fructose is the excess energy that will turn to fat if not used immediately (Ancira). All of these sugars are produced naturally, but there are many other types of sugars that are refined and added into our food. These include corn syrup, cane juice, dextrose, agave, and many others. Most people that see these names on a food label do not know they are a form of sugar, or think that they are a healthier form of sugar. Another common mistake is thinking that organic sugar is better than normal sugar. Sugar is sugar; no matter what form, it can affect the body in a negative way if too much is consumed. 

When one consumes sugar, the taste buds in their mouth send certain signals to their brain. The brain has even more powerful effects than one would imagine. Signals enter the forebrain in the cerebral cortex. In that section of the brain, tastes are broken up into four categories: bitter, salty, umami, and sweet. Since the brain detects sweetness the reward system fires up (Avena). Dopamine is the main neurotransmitter in the reward system and when there is an over intake of sugar, it is put into overdrive. When dopamine levels are constantly high, the brain shows lower levels of them, allowing one to eat more because they are not satiated. When sugar is consumed there are also receptors in the gut that send messages to the brain. Fructose, the main component of sugar, can only be digested in the liver. When over consumption occurs however, the pancreas helps to create a hormone called insulin. Insulin changes the sugar to fat for storage, but if one has too much insulin, it tells the body that it is not full causing one to overeat (Fed Up). Triglycerides, fat in the blood stream, are another component of how sugar gets digested. They are created in the liver and used for helpful building mechanisms in the body. When the liver is supposed to digest large amounts of fructose, it creates too many triglycerides, which in turn make the body convert the fructose to fat. For the most part this fat is then stored in the abdominal area. Princeton University's psychologist Bart Hoebel experimented with rats and found some interesting evidence to support the claim that sugar is a large fat producing agent. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board ...  Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain weight." (Zinczenko). Clearly, sugar adversely affects the body when intake is too high.

Studies have shown that sugar has addictive properties and exhibits the same symptoms as drug addiction. Doctors have performed brain scans to show just how similar reactions look. There were PET scans taken between an obese patient, a cocaine-addicted patient, and a normal patient. The normal brain had much more dopamine in it, which is produced as part of the reward system. Dopamine forms when there is anticipation of the reward and goes away when the reward is received. With addicts, the creation of dopamine is a little bit different. 

"Over time, the consistently high levels of dopamine create plastic changes to the brain, desensitizing neurons so that they are less affected by it, and decreasing the number of receptors. That leads to the process of addiction, wherein one loses control and is left with an intense drive to compulsively take the drug" (Hirschman). 

In the brain scans that showed the obese and cocaine addicted subjects the dopamine levels were much lower than healthy individuals. These dopamine scans show concrete evidence that there is a connection between obesity and addiction.  

Besides studies on humans, there have been studies done on animals such as rats. One experiment starved rats for twelve hours before allowing them food with either ten percent sucrose or twenty-five percent glucose. Immediately after being allowed food, the rats would binge eat and then go back for more later. This cycle was continued for a month in which the results clearly showed that they were addicted to the sugar (Benton). The results were compatible with substance abuse patterns, which include bingeing, withdrawal, craving, and cross-sensitization. Bingeing is the intake of a large amount of a food, at once, without the ability to stop. Withdrawal pertains to the mental issues one goes through when deprived of the substance. Craving is the constant wish for the substance. Cross-sensitization is when someone is sensitized to one substance, and is led to another because of similar chemical structures. This continual process is how addiction is formed. The bingeing brings so much of the substance into the system that when one tries to deprive themselves of it they only want it more. They then may try different foods in replacement, but find that they are also sensitized to those foods because they have similar ingredients. This continual pattern of addiction is dangerous even if it is on a minor scale and can cause many heath issues, including obesity.

Sugar also has many other health effects on the body that have been found and researched. There have been clinical studies that show sucrose as a cause for weight gain and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome includes hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease. Their existence was not very well documented or known about until after sugar became available to the public in England, France, and Germany (Johnson et al.). As the market for sugar has grown, these problems have rapidly multiplied. In recent statistics from the Center for Disease Control in the United States, thirty percent of adults and around twenty percent of children are obese. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, also makes up a third of the population and is "paralleled by increasing rates of obesity and diabetes ...  One of the primary underlying causes of high blood pressure is related to your body producing too much insulin and leptin in response to a high-carbohydrate (i.e. high sugar) and processed food diet." (Mercola). "The increase in hypertension and diabetes translates into increased rates of stroke, heart failure, and myocardial infarction", which all are under the category of cardiovascular disease (Johnson et al.). All of these conditions are interrelated, with sugar being a common underlying factor. 

Not only does sugar have health effects on the human body, but also the way that it metabolizes has different consequences than other foods. The concept of "calories in, calories out" does not apply to sugar calories. As much as one would love to burn off 500 calories at the gym in order to eat ice cream, it may not work out that way. Margo Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy Center for Science in the Public Interest was correct when she said, "Exercise is important but we are not going to exercise our way out of this obesity problem." Carbohydrate fuel reserves and physical performance are all increased when sugar is consumed, but this balance occurs only at physical activities of at least thirty minutes in length (Howard). Body weight requires a balance between the "total energy ingested and the total energy expended" (Hill). The type of calories a person consumes is as important as exercise in terms of weight loss and overall health. For example, there is a difference between eating the same number of calories of almonds versus soda. Almonds contain fiber, and because they are digested slowly they do not raise blood sugar very high. There is no fiber in a soft drink and the sugar it contains goes straight to the liver causing the blood sugar to rise very rapidly. The liver gets a sugar rush and cannot absorb the sugar fast enough so it turns immediately into fat. Robert Lustig, MD, a UCSF pediatric neuroendocrinologist "does not believe all food calories have the same impact on fat storage and energy expenditure, regardless of whether they come from fat, protein or carbohydrate. Fructose, a type of carbohydrate, is not metabolized like other foodstuffs, and not even like glucose, the other major carbohydrate" (Norris). This is why it is so important to look at the composition of ones food and try not to have sugar rich meals even if they are low in calories. 

A great example of the effects of sugar calories versus non-sugar calories is That Sugar Film. This documentary follows Damon Gameau, a healthy individual who had given up sugar for three years straight. In order to investigate the hidden evils of sugar he performed a life changing experiment. For sixty days he decided to consume forty teaspoons of sugar, the daily amount that is considered normal in Australia. Most of it came from hidden sugars in processed foods that were considered "healthy". This did not include soft drinks, confectionary, or fast foods. Additionally, he ate the same number of calories as he did before and exercised the same amount. He realized that these foods, even though they had the same number of calories, did remarkably different things to his body. He developed a fatty liver within weeks, his waist size increased by 10cm, his blood sugar was elevated, he was exhausted all the time, he had mood swings, and he had early signs of what doctors believed to be coronary problems. His story proved to millions that not only the labeling of healthy foods is deceiving but that sugar truly has harmful effects on the human body.

The food industry has capitalized on the fact that people are uneducated about sugar. Labeling has become a way for food manufacturers to market their foods as healthy; when in fact, they are full of sugar. They also add forms of sugar that many people don't recognize. In the documentary Fed up they express this idea with the following quote, "Everything in the grocery store is made with less fat and fewer calories, and yet our kids keep getting bigger and sicker." People always seem to jump into diet fads especially low fat diets. Although it is great to lower one's fat intake, many products that claim to be low fat are loaded with sugar. The food industry took advantage of this trend and offered low fat products. Unfortunately, many have higher sugar content to make up for the loss of fat. This makes the food even worse than it was in the first place. Approximately 600,000 food items in the supermarket, or 80 percent, have added sugar. That fact is due to the rapid increase in sugar within the industry, which can be seen in the following quote. "Over the past century, Americans have increased their fructose consumption from fifteen grams per day to seventy-five grams per day or more (Norris)". The American Heart Association's daily allowance of added sugar is six to nine teaspoons. A simple bowl of cereal and juice exceeds this limit. Most people eat upwards of forty teaspoons because of how prevalent sugar is in all foods. Marketing strategies make people think they are eating healthy, but often, they are not. Fed Up also talks about the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation that was founded in 2009 in order to " battle against obesity". They claimed to remove 1.5 million calories from the marketplace by 2015. This equates to fourteen less calories a day for the average child or adult, in turn doing almost nothing for their health. They did lower the calories but not the amount of sugar in their products. For example, they changed the normal Oreo, which has 160 calories and 3.5 grams of sugar to 150 calories and 3.5 grams of sugar. The amount of sugar did not change, only the calories and grams of fat. It is not a coincidence that the members of the Foundation include Coca Cola, Hershey's, Kraft, Mars, Kellogg's, Sara Lee, and Pepsi; all large corporations. They continue this marketing scheme to collect more and more money from the unaware public and continue to aid the obesity epidemic. 

As sugar consumption has increased thirty percent in the past three decades one can see a parallel between obesity and other metabolically related diseases (Turner). This is largely due to the quantity of sugar consumed, the way in which sugar is processed by the body, and the increasing amounts of hidden sugar added to everyday foods. Additionally, the food industry has used marketing to help promote low calorie and lower fat products, while simultaneously adding sugar to them. This excess sugar immediately turns into fat within the body when it is not used as energy. Due to this constant intake of high sugar foods, humans have become addicted. Once the brain is trained to consume these sweetened foods it is difficult to resist them and the process continues. Sugar and its prevalence due to the food industry are the reasons for the increase in obesity and related diseases in America. 

