SugarScience Blog Archive
2015
December 16, 2015
6 Ways To Limit Sugar during the Holidays
At TEDMED, a three-day conference focusing on health and medicine, Laura Schmidt, PhD, a professor of health policy at UCSF, talked about how we can cut down on sugar intake and create a healthier world for ourselves and our children.
Read ArticleOctober 30, 2015
Laura Schmidt Presents at TEDMED Conference
Sugar scientist and UCSF professor of health policy Laura Schmidt will question whether consumers really do have freedom of choice – and what policymakers can learn from corporations in nudging consumers toward healthier behaviors. Join us this November 18-20 to see this year's program, live on the TEDMED Stage in Palm Springs, California.
Read ArticleJuly 29, 2015
Can "Healthy Foods" Make You Sick?
In "That Sugar Film," Australian film director Damon Gameau documented in less than two hours what has been occurring gradually throughout the U.S. population over decades. Within 60 days, by eating what most Americans believe is “healthy food,†he had self-induced what we in medical research call Metabolic Syndrome—the underlying hormonal dysfunction that accounts for the rising rates of diabetes, heart, and liver disease in America.
Read ArticleJune 1, 2015
UCSF Healthy Beverages Initiative
Starting July 1, the UCSF campus and medical center will begin rolling out a Healthy Beverages Initiative across campus, starting at Mission Bay and culminating in October at Parnassus. Under the program, UCSF will sell a variety of zero-calorie waters, plain milk, coffee, tea, diet beverages and 100% pure fruit juice in our vending machines, coffee kiosks, cafeterias and eateries on our property and will eliminate sales of sugar-sweetened beverages.
Read ArticleMay 6, 2015
SugarScience Response to 2015 Dietary Guidelines Recommendations
The SugarScience team has joined nearly 1,000 people so far who have written to express their support or concerns about the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendation to the USDA and HHS. Here is our response.
Read ArticleApril 14, 2015
Diet Soda and Belly Fat: A Growing Concern
A growing body of evidence is showing that it might not just be added sugar, but also artificial sweeteners, that are contributing to the rapidly rising rates of obesity and diabetes in America.
Read ArticleMarch 27, 2015
Why Sugar Matters Today. Finding Tools to Fight Diabetes.
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, 1,500 U.S. soldiers lost a limb in combat. In that same period, more than 1.5 million U.S. residents lost limbs to amputations from type 2 diabetes. That glaring fact, and the millions of Americans affected by it, is something we need to remember in the midst of the dry discussions around sugar and food labeling.
Read ArticleMarch 24, 2015
"Sugar Papers" Reveal Industry Role in 1970s Dental Program
Industry documents discovered by UC San Francisco researchers reveals that the sugar industry worked closely with the NIH in the 1960s and ‘70s to develop a federal research program focused on approaches other than sugar reduction to prevent tooth decay in American children.
Read ArticleMarch 4, 2015
Taking the Lead Worldwide: World Health Organization Recommends Sugar Limits
The World Health Organization (WHO) has put a historic stake in ground on the subject of sugar and health, issuing new guidelines that call upon countries to reduce the consumption of added sugar. The UN group continues with its recommendation that both adults and children limit their intake of added sugar to less than 10% of total daily calories. What’s new is its guidance that it may be best to keep added sugar below 5% of daily calories. That’s 25 grams (6 teaspoons) per day for a 2,000-calorie diet.
Read ArticleFebruary 24, 2015
A Critical Step in the Right Direction
The nation’s top nutritional advisory panel has made an important move to help address what it calls the “enormous cost†of chronic disease in the United States. This welcome news comes in the form of dietary recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). If adopted in the upcoming 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we will be the first generation of Americans to have a science-based, federally recommended limit on added sugar.
Read ArticleFebruary 17, 2015
Hyperactive Kids: What's Sugar's Role?
For years, parents have insisted that giving kids a big dose of sugar can amp them up, but the science failed to confirm their instincts. Now, with the rising awareness of sugar’s role in our diets and health, scientists are once again asking whether sugar could play a role in the growing number of new ADHD cases in American kids. It still isn’t entirely clear on whether added sugar is linked to hyperactivity or clinically diagnosed ADHD. But in some areas, the evidence is building. Here’s what we do and don’t know about ADHD, sugar and kids.
Read ArticleFebruary 10, 2015
Starting Kids out on the Right Track
An important new study on added sugar and salt in packaged food for babies and toddlers, published in the journal Pediatrics, is receiving broad attention in the news media due to the stark findings and its authoritative source: researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta.
Read ArticleJanuary 31, 2015
The Science on Sports Drinks
A large number of SugarScience followers have asked about the value of sports drinks. This is topical following Super Bowl weekend and it’s especially important for our readers: according to our latest poll, one third of our website visitors exercise more than four times a week. If you exercise that much and regularly consume sports drinks in hopes of boosting performance, this could be adding a pretty heavy dose of added sugar to your diet.
Read ArticleJanuary 7, 2015
What's Your SugarShift?
Happy New Year! As 2015 begins and we all set our resolutions for the year, most of us have health as one of our top priorities. So here's the SugarScience challenge for your new year: Join us as we roll out #SugarShift2015!
Read ArticleJanuary 6, 2015
Two white crystals to avoid for cardiovascular health
A study on the impact of sugar on cardiovascular disease that appeared Dec. 12, 2014, in the scientific journal Open Heart has received widespread coverage by traditional media, but the conclusion should be placed in context.
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