Instead the sugar misled the public in thinking that fat was responsible. I know you probably thinking "how does fat doesn't make people fatter?" so here's the thing fats along with proteins and carbohydrates are the basic nutrients that are required to provide enough energy to do our daily jobs. Seriously! they are the one and the same when comes to our bodies. Our bodies use various enzymes to break them down. Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are complex nutrients they are broken down by our bodies into simpler compounds viz. sugars, amino acid and fatty acid. Yes, fatty acid sounds bad but our body processes these and uses them to generate only one thing and that is energy.
Now, I understand your doubt. You are wondering about the fat that is stored under the skin. Our bodies store excess energy as fat. That is whichever simple nutrient is in excess ie. amino acids, sugars and yes fatty acids too they are all just energy in the view of our body, converted to lipids and stored under our skin as reserve energy and as an insulation from cold.
Now, the sugar industries found the above fact very inconvenient for their bottom line and took some liberties with it and false advertized saying that fats that are present in your food are directly stored under the skin. This started the trend of fat free food. You see the food loses its taste when fats are removed from it. To mask the gross taste of the fat free food add a lot of sugar which increased the sugar sales.
The other reason they did this is because of the rapid increase of heart diseases in the USA in the 60's. Americans were determined to find the root cause of this. See the sugar is the root cause of heart diseases. Americans consume a lot of sugar. check out this article about 'sugar and heart disease' on american heart association.
So, to protect itself the sugar industries swayed the studies conducted by paying scientists and many research institutes in the 1960's. A more recent studies show the truth. A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents. Because of this blatant abuse of science the sugar industry got its way when the american FDA recommended a low fat diet in 1993.The FDA has corrected those claims recently but the public opinion is yet to change. FDA Recommendations.
The FDA's Recommendation is just the beginning for the sugar industries. They started to put sugar in nearly everything. For instance a company called ocean fresh, who's signature product is their cranberry juice, add's large amount of sugars to make the taste palatable. Cranberries have a naturally unpalatable taste, I'm not saying this the ocean fresh company's CEO said that in this letter to the FDA to not add an added sugar label. So, they are adding huge amount of sugar and denying to disclose the amount of added sugar and when the FDA made the added sugar label mandatory the company urged the FDA to put the amount of sugar in grams instead of teaspoons to stop americans people (who use oz and pounds) from understanding it. A quote form that Letter sent by 457 of its farmers:
The FDA's Recommendation is just the beginning for the sugar industries. They started to put sugar in nearly everything. For instance a company called ocean fresh, who's signature product is their cranberry juice, add's large amount of sugars to make the taste palatable. Cranberries have a naturally unpalatable taste, I'm not saying this the ocean fresh company's CEO said that in this letter to the FDA to not add an added sugar label. So, they are adding huge amount of sugar and denying to disclose the amount of added sugar and when the FDA made the added sugar label mandatory the company urged the FDA to put the amount of sugar in grams instead of teaspoons to stop americans people (who use oz and pounds) from understanding it. A quote form that Letter sent by 457 of its farmers:
"I urge you to maintain a total sugars listing on the Nutrition Facts Panel and make an exception for the cranberry, which requires sweetening for palatability, in order to avoid unintended negative consequences of this regulation to this healthy, native fruit and those who farm it."
The problem doesn't end with ocean fresh abroad. The public favour for sugar over fat has many serious consequences everywhere. Like in India where obesity and heart diseases are at all time high. This can be attributed to soft drinks which have been more accessible now than ever. The consumption of these drinks have increased at an exponential rate over the last decade. People don't realize how much sugar is in these beverages. A can of coke(330ml) has more sugar than the recommended daily sugar consumption. heart diseases and sugar are closely related according to many studies conducted by the AHA.
This is not the first time that something like this has happened. In the early 20th century the oil industries suppressed studied that correctly said that the leaded fuel is bad for developing infants and children. Then in the later decades the tobacco industries downplayed the dangers of tobacco and the how it caused cancer. But we found out the truth eventually and did the right thing eventually. Now, however is a different time. We have the access to all the world's information at our fingertips and falling for these manipulations is just plain ignorant. Finally, take what the media and advertisements say with a grain of salt, look for studies that the ads and media qoute in their segments and find out where their funding comes from, all of this is public information. Today we have the capability to find these things out for oneselfs.
This is not the first time that something like this has happened. In the early 20th century the oil industries suppressed studied that correctly said that the leaded fuel is bad for developing infants and children. Then in the later decades the tobacco industries downplayed the dangers of tobacco and the how it caused cancer. But we found out the truth eventually and did the right thing eventually. Now, however is a different time. We have the access to all the world's information at our fingertips and falling for these manipulations is just plain ignorant. Finally, take what the media and advertisements say with a grain of salt, look for studies that the ads and media qoute in their segments and find out where their funding comes from, all of this is public information. Today we have the capability to find these things out for oneselfs.
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