Sugar and a sedentary lifestyle may shrink your brain….

Today's Post: Tuesday, 8-25-2009

There were two online stories today that I think belong together.

1. In one, the American Heart Association was reported to have announced a new set of guidelines for sugar intake and noted that the average intake in the United States is now far above their suggested guidelines. They state the average American eats 22 teaspoons of sugar for 355 direct extra calories each day with much of that coming from soft drinks. (That’s a bit over 88 grams a day of sugar.)

2. In the other, a study was done showing that in obese people virtually every part of their brain was 8% smaller; and comparable to people who were lean but 16 years older. And, even in overweight people, their brains were 4% smaller; and were comparable to people who were lean but 8 years older.

That article that was at Livescience.com today, & titled,

“Obese People Have 'Severe Brain Degeneration.' “

They suggest that this shrinkage may directly contribute to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or other mental decline by literally shrinking your “cognitive reserves.”

(And, in it, they also note that obesity has “….many negative health effects, including increased risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and some cancers. It's also been shown to reduce sexual activity.” – in addition to this excess brain shrinkage.)

Both eating too much sugar and getting too little exercise tend to make people fat -- each doing so independently. Doing both almost guarantees it.

Sugar and related sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup have no fiber or other nutrition. So they tend not to make you as much less hungry as foods that do have fiber and other nutrition even when those foods have some natural sugar. They also create strong rebound hunger that causes you to overeat other foods in addition to the calories in the sugar. Artificial sweeteners tend to fatten also because they usually create more of this rebound hunger along with a strong craving for real sugar or foods containing it.

One analysis I read suggests that this excess sugar intake and the overeating it helps cause are most of the reason for the explosion in obesity in people who eat the excess sugar and are so far more than the more sedentary population.

I think that the increase in sedentary lifestyles and decrease in average amounts of exercise have been understated enough that this analysis may be partially incorrect.

Since exercise has been found to literally grow new brain cells -- and people who exercise have been found to have less brain shrinkage, it’s clear to me that a solution to obesity, whether for everyone or an individual person wanting to stay lean or lose excess fat, needs to include both very little sugar intake and enough regular exercise.

One of the reports on the new American Heart Association guidelines said that some of the soft drink manufacturers had gone on record as saying their products were not part of this problem.

Busted !!

Unfortunately for them, the data show the reverse. It is true that someone who exercises regularly can probably drink a regular or diet soft drink once or twice a week without harm or a lot of fat gain.

But according to a new book on fat loss I’m reading, a Harvard study found that people who drink one soft drink a day tend to be an average of 15 pounds fatter than people who don’t.

And, since the average American drinks 2 soft drinks a day; and obese Americans tend to drink 3 or more a day, the data show otherwise.

The best policy for anyone who wants to avoid being too fat and its associated health problems for themselves is to virtually never drink soft drinks.

Since the soft drink makers have a lot of money to lobby with and a very strong incentive to do so; and most Americans still think of soft drinks as a normal and harmless pleasure that is moderately inexpensive, it may well take far too long to tax sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners and impose an additional and separate tax on all soft drinks.

But, there ARE two strong forces pushing in the opposite direction.

1. The genie has been released from the bottle and cannot be put back. It’s now becoming public knowledge that excess sugar causes obesity and diseases that otherwise would be avoidable, particularly in people who are sedentary; and most of the dramatic run up in obesity is closely linked to increased soft drink consumption.

2. The dramatic increases in health care costs in the United States due to this increased obesity to treat the resulting diseases are becoming a severe drain on the economy. To end this, soft drinks will be heavily taxed or even outlawed outright. Given the way cigarettes have been handled, I suspect heavy taxes and regulations are more likely than an outright ban.

The informed policy makers now know these heavy taxes should be imposed. Our economy would be much better off it that happened within a year. But I think it will take at least 10 years to get adequate taxes in place.

So, whatever you pay in medical expenses and insurance, get ready for it to cover less and cost more soon -- about doubling those trends from the last few years before that solution is in place.

By the way, the soft drink manufacturers should be grateful for one thing. The level of sugar intake for men and for women the American Heart Association suggested is OK is about a third of current consumption. But those guidelines are too high! Given the relatively sedentary American population, their guidelines, if driven by health and obesity prevention considerations, should be half or a third as high.