How Much Sugar is Too Much?

Some may say the answer to this questions depends on your personal taste, or how young you are, or how many calories you burn each day. But the harsh reality of it is, sugar is a legal drug and many of us are just unable to kick the habit. To many of us a "treat" means 4 times the amount of sugar than what we're use to throughout the day. How did we get this way? I'm glad you asked that question. Conditioning.

For me it was years of bright colored labels that lined the rows of the grocery store as I cruised by gawking from the passenger seat of the shopping cart. Sure, I had parents. But the urge to give your child what they want rather than what'd best can be difficult to overcome. And what starts out as a treat can easily become a craving and later a habit.

Take Nikki for example. She sat in the cubicle directly across the isle from me at work. Every morning she would rush in to work about 10 minutes late with a Mountain Dew and a new excuse. I would always wince at the fact that Mountain Dew was for breakfast almost every morning. Nikki was a really sweet and pleasant person with a fast metabolism that didn't seem to let her gain a pound if she tried. She would have a second Mountain Dew at lunch time and a third before leaving the office in the evening. "One for the road!" she'd say gleefully before rushing out the door in an attempt to beat traffic home.


My point here is this. This day-to-day function seems very normal to many, however the damage being done to the body is anything but normal for a daily routine.


One 20oz Mountain Dew = 2.5 servings @ 31g of sugar per serving = about 76g of sugar per bottle.


The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that a person who consumes a 2,000 calorie diet should not consume more than 40g of refined sugar per day.


The American Heart Association released a report that recommends 20g of sugar for women and 36g daily for men. (36g is the exact amount of sugar in an average canned soda)


It seems to me that 1 bottle of Nikki's favorite soda knocks the daily recommended serving of sugar out of the park with her first beverage of the day! Why giving these types of soft drinks to children EVER is not considered child abuse is beyond me.

Sugar. You can get it cheap and abundantly. It tastes great going down and makes you feel amazing momentarily. When the feeling is gone you not only WANT more but can possibly feel like you NEED it to get through the rest of the day. Sounds pretty similar to some of the stuff they warned us about in Social Studies class. 

The stuff that parents and teachers sit you down and talk to you about in a rather uncomfortable manner. We were trained on how to respond if ever approached with drugs, while the real predator is the man at the candy store with the goods or Mr Softy in the white truck with the friendly music. The methods they use to entice their customers to purchase products that have too much of an affect on a young body to be consumed unsupervised are far more effective than "hey kid, wanna feel good?" Have the REAL talk with your children or someone else's child. It'll go a long a way.