Should kids drink this?

If there is one thing that really gets me in my day to day social life, is watching parents willing give their kids sports drinks.

Sports drinks are for athletes taking part in endurance and intense sport events.  Does your child fit into this category?

Sports drinks are not healthy drinks at all, unfortunately we associate sports with health and therefore a sports drink could be perceived as healthy.

However, it turns out that 68% of children drink these sugar loaded sports drinks at least once a week, according to researchers at Cardiff University.  It seems that the main attraction to these drinks is the sweet taste, low price and all too easy availability.

In fact, at a sports event for my 8 year old son a week ago they were handing out Powerade and Aquarius for FREE to the children there.  The children were primary students though to high school and it was an award ceremony so no, there wasn't a football match going on, or volley ball, or track events... it was just an award ceremony and fun and games such as inflatable castles and slides.

What is worrying about these types of drinks are their high sugar levels and the acidic content which increase the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and rotten teeth.  The rotten teeth issue is actually bigger than it may seem with fruit juices contributing to young children having all their milk teeth extracted because of rotting due to the high sugar levels in fruit juice.

Researchers spoke to 160 children between the ages of 12 to 14 in four schools in South Wales.  Here in Spain I see children as young as 5 being given Aquarius with their lunch!  The researchers found that 89% consumed sports drinks, 68% of those drink them on a regular basis (regular basis = between daily and weekly).

Russ Ladwa, of the British Dental Association, said:

"The rise of sports drinks as just another drink option among children is a cause for concern.  They are laden with acids and sugars.

"Sports drinks are rarely a healthy choice, and marketing them to the general population is grossly irresponsible.  Elite athletes might have reason to use them, but for almost everyone else they represent a risk to both their oral and general health."

Note that he says that elite athletes MIGHT HAVE REASON... Sports drinks aren't even necessary for sports!!

Also if we check out the information on recommended daily allowance for sugar set by the World Health Organization (WHO), we find that back in 2015 they stated that free sugars should be 10% of the diet (that's about 50g or 12 teaspoons daily) but a further reduction to 5% (25g or 6 teaspoons daily) would be better.  5-10% free sugars daily, means from all the foods you could consume during one day.

Sports drinks; Powerade, Aquarius, Gatorade, Lucozade... let's take a closer look.  If you look up the nutritional information on most of these it will give you the values for 100ml of product.  However, we hardly ever drink 100ml as they come in cans of 330ml or bottles of 500ml.  The manufacturers put the values for 100ml because they make it seem better than it really is!

Aquarius Original 100ml = 6.3g of sugar... But a 330ml can = 20.7g and a 500ml bottle = 31.5g of sugar.  (One 500ml bottle is over the 5% recommended daily allowance (RDA) by WHO).

Aquarius Orange 100ml = 7.9g of sugar... But a 330ml can = 26g and a 500ml bottle = 39.5g of sugar. One 500ml is over the 5% RDA by WHO).

CocaCola have "improved" the aquarius line SLIGHTLY with their Aquarius Vive 100ml = 4.3g of sugar and has added Niacin and Zinc, but a 330ml can = 14.2g  and a 500ml bottle = 21.5g of sugar.

Powerade 100ml = 7.5g of sugar and a 500ml bottle = 37.5g of sugar.  (One 500ml bottle is over the 5% RDA by WHO).

Gatorade has different formats but 240ml = 14g of sugar and 710ml = 42g of sugar.

Lucozade Sport 500ml = 18g of sugar.

Do any of us really need this amount of sugar?  I run or cycle almost everyday and I have a very low carbohydrate intake and don't have much refined sugar... if any!

Good old water is just right and leave the soft drinks loaded with sugar for rare occasions where you can't say no.  But talk to your children about the damaging effects of regular consumption of these types of drinks.  They will get it.

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

Sugar tax... at long sweet last...

Sugar has been BIG NEWS of late.  There has been so much talk about the dangers of sugar and how it is being called the new tobacco, etc... And what's more, it's true.

Sugar is really bad for you, in fact I have written several posts on the subject the first of which was back in 2012; Dare I say sugar and heroin in the same sentence?

However, sugar is such a part of our lives that we don't even realize it.  It was so "cool" to drink Coke like in the movies (way back when), and now sugary drinks are a part of most peoples' everyday life.  Hidden sugar is in the most unsuspecting foods, making it difficult for people to calculate just how much sugar they ingest daily.

And then there is the non-stop marketing of processed foods and drinks which are packed full of sugar - even the supposedly "healthy" ones such as non-fat foods or granola bars... take out the fat and you need to replace the lost flavor with something, which is usually sugar and/or salt.

The one thing food manufacturers look for is what is known in the industry as the "bliss point"; that is the perfect mix of sugar, salt and fat that makes you - the consumer, wanting to eat more and more of your favorite processed foods.

Obesity is a huge problem (no pun intended), both adult and, more worryingly infant obesity are on the rise.  If being fat was just a question of appearance then... well, hey - that's up to you.  But being overweight or obese means a whole host of HEALTH problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, double risk of Alzheimer's, and several cancers...

All very serious diseases.

There are now lots of people campaigning against sugar, Dr. Aseem Malhotra and celebrity chef
Jaime Oliver are the first 2 to spring to mind.  Last week the anti sugar campaigners have won a small victory.  Now, I say small as we are yet to see the outcome of the new SUGAR TAX to be implemented in the United Kingdom.

Yes, the chancellor announced in his annual budget that a new sugar tax will be applied to the soft drinks industry in the UK.

The new tax is aimed directly at high-sugar drinks, in particular carbonated drinks.  However, this does not include fruit juices and milk-based drinks.

The tax will be imposed on drinks companies according to the volume of sugary drinks that they produce or import.  There will also be two levels; one for total sugar content above 5g per 100 milliliters, and another higher tax for drinks with more than 8g or sugar per 100 milliliters.  This could be about 18p and 24p per liter.

So, the products with the highest rate of the sugar tax will be Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Lucozade and Irn-Bru with the lower rate being applied to Dr Pepper, Fanta, Sprite, Schweppes Indian Tonic water and alcohol-free shandy.

For the moment, the sugar tax is on soft drinks and not all sweets such as chocolates and cakes as soft drinks are not seen in the same light as say a cake.  A cake can be thought of as a special treat whereas soft drinks are just a part of everyday life.  For example, as far as teenagers are concerned, soft drinks are their number one source of sugar intake and younger children get a third of their daily sugar intake from them.

This sugar tax is a direct attack on childhood obesity and, in my opinion, something that should be implemented in all countries.  The British Chancellor expects to gain 520 million Great British Pounds per year from this tax which he says will be spent on increasing the funding for sport in primary schools.

Teaching our children healthy habits from an early age is fundamental for all aspects of life.  There is a primary school in Scotland called St. Ninians which has it's pupils running a mile a day during school time.  They have noticed that the children are better behaved, settle into lessons quicker and there are no obese children in the school.  This initiative is being implanted in other schools and a study is being designed to analyze the results.

Here in Spain, my son who is in his second year of primary school, only has 2 lesson a week of physical education - too little as far as I am concerned.

So... what's the rest of the Western World going to do about it?

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

The Coca-Cola Experiment

By now, you should all know the perils of drinking too many soft drinks... if any at all.  The amount of sugar contained in drinks such as Coca-Cola is astronomical, and the diet versions aren't much healthier because of the sweeteners in them.

To prove this point, George Prior, a 50 year old entrepreneur from Los Angeles decided to see what would happen if he drank 10 cans of Coke a day for a month.  Before starting on this experiment, George was fit and healthy and weighed 12 stone (76 kg).

After the 30 day trial his stats were way different:  His normally healthy physique turned into a protruding pot belly and his weight went from 12 stone (76 kg) to 14 stone (88.9 kg), that's a 2 stone gain in just 30 days!  But that wasn't all; his blood pressure soared from 129/77 to 145/96 - the ideal level for blood pressure is 120/80 above this level the risk of heart disease or stroke is greatly increased.

Yet again is wasn't just the physical transformation that worried him, he feared he was becoming addicted to Coke after he experienced intense cravings.  Mr. Prior tried to maintain his normal Paleo diet which is a low carbohydrate diet which promotes eating lean meats, vegetables and nuts and berries, but he experienced severe sugar cravings that he found difficult to ignore.

"The most dramatic change was in weight: 23lb (10.4 kg) of gain over 30 days," he said, "I also seemed to develop a craving for Cokes, or other sugars, during the time I was drinking Cokes.  I'm urging people to examine the amount of sugar in their diets.  People need to be aware of the real and powerful damaging effects of sugar on their health."

Before (Left) and After (Right)

He also found that he felt full all the time and had to force himself to drink all 10 Cokes every day, he said he did the experiment in order to stir up debate and to get people talking about how much sugar they are actually consuming and how unhealthy it is.

"I would prefer not to do it again," he commented, "I don't like being this heavy."

After finishing his experiment Mr. Prior lost 5 lb (2.2 kg) in just four days.

A regular can of Coke contains 35g of sugar, the equivalent of 7 cubes of sugar.  In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the recommended daily allowance of sugar to be reduced from 50g to 25 g, or from 10 to five cubes a day.  So just ONE can of Coke is more than the recommended daily allowance.

Experts warn that soft drinks contain sugar but have no nutritional value whatsoever, and Mr. Prior said that he found it hard to eat as much food because the Coke left him feeling full at lunch and dinner.  Experts also warn that soft drinks are fueling the obesity epidemic and, consequently, other serious diseases including cancer, heart disease and stroke.

New York assemblyman, Karim Camara has called for sugar-laden beverages to carry warning labels similar to those found on cigarette packets, he said that soft drinks "are the new smoking".

The general public often doesn't realize just how much sugar they consume as most of it is in a liquid form.  Soft drinks and fruit juices are basically just liquid sugar and should be consumed in moderation.  Children should not be allowed these types of drinks even though most parents deem juices to be "healthy", when really they are just flavored sugar.

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

The Obesity Problem

It seems to me that there is lots in the news lately about obesity and sugar, but even though there is now more information than ever available to the public, the obesity epidemic isn't getting any better.

It's a fact that the developed world has a serious obesity problem, some call it an epidemic.  Obesity causes a whole host of health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc..  You've all heard me talk about this incessantly.

I was truly saddened to read an article this week about a survey carried out on 550 obese people by Nuffield Health in the UK.  The results say:

• One in five obese adults would rather be fat than have to watch what they eat.
• 17% admitted they have never tried to lose weight.
• 48% are resigned to remaining obese because they lack the will power to diet.
• A quarter of those surveyed said that they don't have time to exercise.
• One in seven said they would rather risk their health by being over weight than to have to exercise.

The researchers also surveyed 3,100 British adults who were of varying weights:

• 39% of people claim not to eat healthily  because it's too expensive.
• 14% think they lack time to prepare a healthy meal.
• 10% said they didn't know how to eat healthily.
• 40% said that seeing obese people in their area of residence is a common occurrence.
• 38% said childhood obesity is normal.
• 43% want stricter regulations on "unhealthy" food and drink chains sponsoring high profile events.
• 40% said school meals should be regulated.
• 55% said the blame lies in the food industry.

So, who really is to blame for obesity?

The food industry:

Our food has changed beyond recognition in just a few decades.  Our grandparents ate meat, fruit, and vegetables - healthy home cooked meals produced from scratch.

Industrially produced "food" such as hot dogs, doughnuts, biscuits, hamburgers, etc., did not exist.  The problem with the industrialization of food is that it has stopped being food.  It is highly processed, and packed full of additives to give it a longer shelf life.  Even fruit and vegetables are picked early and shipped long distances reducing their nutrient quality and they are also covered in pesticides, and don't even get me started on GMO produce!  Meat and fish are farm produced and are fed on anything other than their natural food.  Cows are shot full of steroids and antibiotics to make them grow bigger quicker - the same happens with chickens.

We are constantly assaulted with advertising from major food corporations such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, Coca Cola, Pepsi Co. - where you can get a quick and easy "meal" for your hectic lifestyle.  Soft drinks are packed full of sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFC).   

I could go on and on about the food industry but this post would be too long and I'd probably bore you!

Medical Staff/ Government Bodies:

This is a tough one.  Lots of GPs are over worked and don't have the time to dedicate to people with a complicated problem such as obesity.  There is next to no help subsidized by the health service and surgery seems to be the main solution.  Bariatric surgery or gastric bands have many associated risks.

From what I read in the news, lots of people have found help through slimming groups such as Weight Watchers or Slimming World, but not everyone can afford to join.

So how about the National Health starting slimming groups - providing information on how to eat healthily and exercise and support for those in need.  A major factor for success in dieting is to have the emotional and psychological support.

Could governments do more to restrict the good giants and make them reduce things like sugar and salt content and advertising?  A new group, Action on Sugar, that I talked about last week has just been put into action to challenge the food giants.  I wish them luck, it is never too late to try and change things.

The individual:

Our bodies' digestive systems have not changed in 10,000 years.  It was not designed to eat refined, processed foods high in sugar.  HFC is so anti-natural that our bodies can't cope with it.  Lots of people don't realize that our bodies are not equipped to cope with anything other than natural foods: fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and poultry.

The human body was designed to live in a harsh world where food was scarce.  Our ancestors, the hunter-gatherers, lived mostly on what they could gather (fruit and vegetables) and what they could hunt.  And hunting was not an everyday occurrence.  These was no way of keeping food, so if they were lucky enough to catch an animal they had to eat it as quickly as possible before the meat went off.  They would then live off fruit and vegetables until they could catch another.  So, the human body, in those times, stored everything it got because it didn't know when it was going to get more food.

The body literally has not changed in this aspect.  It still stores everything as it still believes that it is living in an environment of scarce food and not in a world of abundance.

The fact that food abounds in all shapes, forms and flavors is literally killing us.  Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had to move a lot to catch their food, we have progressively become extremely sedentary.  We can even go to a drive-thru and not even have to even get out of the car to pick-up food.  Or we can have it delivered.

Obviously it is up to the individual as to WHAT they put in their body.  I really can't believe that people don't know about what is healthy and what isn't.  To me, it is obvious - but then I am a Clinical Nutritionist.

There are hundreds of excuses that people use to explain away their weight problem:

• It's my genes.
• I've tried every diet that exists and nothing works.
• I lost weight and then put it all back on again.
• I can't shift my baby weight.
• I could comfort eat for England!

And so the excuses go on and on.

The simple truth is that diets don't work.  You may lose the weight initially but the minute you stop dieting it will come back - and then some.  Why?  The answer is simple, if the way you eat on a daily basis has made you fat, changing your diet and restricting certain foods will help you lose that weight.  However, the minute you go back to eating the way you did before you went on a diet, will just make you put all the weight back on again - just like it did the first time!

Any change in diet has to be a lifestyle change - forever, not just for a short period of time.

It really isn't rocket science.

So who do you think is to blame?

My opinion is that everyone is to blame.

The food industry for producing unhealthy food.

Medical staff and government bodies for allowing the food industry to do what ever it wants.

Humans... no one force feeds you.  You have a choice.  Eat healthy foods, there is loads of free information out there to tell you how.

My only worry is that healthy food seems to be too expensive for some people - that is a real problem.  When it's cheaper to buy a meal at McDonald's than it is to go to the supermarket and buy healthy food then there is a very real and worrying problem.

Social Nutrition:  You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com