Consume sugar in moderation if you want to be Stayin' Alive

Study finds frequently drinking sugar-sweetened drinks, such as sodas and sports drinks, was associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and, to a lesser extent, cancers.  In summary, if you are thirsty drink water. And to ensure you get all your essential macro and micronutrients daily we recommend mixing in some of our patented nutritional composition IQed.

According to a new study of 37,716 men and 80,647 women. published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation, frequently drinking sugar-sweetened drinks, such as sodas and sports drinks, was associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and, to a lesser extent, cancers. 

Moderation Vs Elimination

Before sharing the study results however as there appears to be a rise in people viewing all sugar including fruit as harmful, here at IQed we believe it's important to remember there is a difference between elimination and moderation and also wanted to point out there are differences between junk processed foods and natural sources of sugar. 

Regarding this, here are some quotes from David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM who is the founding director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, and current President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

"We were born with a preference for sweet because that has fostered the survival of not only Homo sapiens, but mammals in general, for perhaps as long as there have been mammals. Breast milk — and I trust no one is foolhardy enough to suggest that breast milk is evil! — is a sugar-sweetened beverage.

Sugar, concentrated into the nectar of flowers, fuels the flight of hummingbirds. It is, in fact, the sole food source of these marvels of both aviation, and metabolic intensity. How evil can hummingbird fuel be? Clearly not evil at all for hummingbirds! But that may not say much about us. So enough about hummingbirds; let’s talk about you and me.

We like sweet because mammals who like sweet are more apt to survive than mammals who don’t. Period." 

History of Sugar

Around 6,000 BC, people in New Guinea began to grow sugarcane, chewing and sucking on the stalks to drink the sweet juice within. Sugarcane cultivation spread to India, whereby 500 BC people had learned to turn bowls of the tropical grass's juice into crude crystals. From there sugar traveled with migrants and monks to China, Persia, northern Africa and eventually to Europe in the 11th century.

Organic cane sugar has the full-bodied taste of sugarcane and is much less processed, retaining a lot of the nutrients present in cane juice. Unrefined cane sugar contains 17 amino acids, 11 minerals, and 6 vitamins, including antioxidants that may help reverse oxidative damage. It is made up of sucrose, fructose, and glucose.

For more than 400 years, sugar remained a luxury in Europe—an exotic spice—until manufacturing became efficient enough to make "white gold" much more affordable..Interestingly enough at one point sugar was used as a folk medicine.

So again this study found evidence that frequently drinking sugar-sweetened drinks, such as sodas and sports drinks, was associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and, to a lesser extent, cancers.  So while sugar has a place in the diet,  keep it in moderation if you want to be 'stayin' alive'. 

Sugar in moderation if you want to be Stayin' Alive

Study Highlights

“Drinking water in place of sugary drinks is a healthy choice that could contribute to longevity,” said Vasanti Malik, Sc.D., lead author on the paper and a research scientist in the Department of Nutrition in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. “Diet soda may be used to help frequent consumers of sugary drinks cut back their consumption, but water is the best and healthiest choice.”

Although people have been drinking fewer sugary drinks in the United States in the past decade, soda and other sweetened drinks still represent the single largest source of added sugar in the U.S. diet and their consumption is on the rise around the world.

Much attention has been given to a potential link between soft drinks, weight gain and health problems related to weight gain such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But few studies have examined whether sugar-sweetened beverages or artificially sweetened beverages can be linked to mortality.

The current study used data from two large-scale longitudinal studies to do just that. Researchers examined data from 37,716 men in the Health Professionals follow-up study and 80,647 women in the Nurses’ Health Study. They controlled for other dietary factors, physical activity, and body mass index so that any effect measured could be independently linked with sugar-sweetened beverages. It also examined the association between drinking artificially sweetened beverages and death."

IQed Summary

 In summary, if you are thirsty drink water.  And to ensure you get all your essential macro and micronutrients daily we recommend mixing in some of our patented nutritional composition IQed   All natural IQed can be used as full meal and vitamin replacement and provides superior nutrition that naturally supports healthy brain, immune, and metabolic functioning!

Journal Reference:

Long-Term Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Mortality in US Adults Vasanti S. Malik, Yanping Li, An Pan, Lawrence De Koning, Eva Schernhammer, Walter C. Willett, and Frank B. Hu  Originally published18 Mar 2019 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.037401 Circulation. 2019 Link: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.037401

Sugar Reference:

https://getiqed.com/blogs/food-for-thought/historically-speaking