DailyDirt: Salt, Sugar, Fat... Yum?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Certain things are almost guaranteed to taste good to us -- salt, sugar and fat are just a few examples of ingredients that most people enjoy and (sometimes) can't stop themselves from eating. Eating anything in excess can be bad for you (see the "truckload of vegetables" debating technique), but people seem to especially focus on salt, sugar and fat. Here are just a few links that provide some data points on the health effects of these three tasty food items.- For decades, we've been told that our salt intake was probably too high, but a recent study -- spanning 50 years and over 45 countries -- concludes that dietary salt intake is normal at around 2,600 mg to 4,800 mg per day (versus the US recommendations of no more than 2,300 mg per day for a healthy person). This conclusion suggests that our salt intake is regulated by physiology and biological need, not by how much salt is in our food. [url]
- Various kinds of processed sugars seem to be an increasing part of the modern diet, and sugar intake correlates with obesity rates across many countries. Should we try to restrict sugar intake with taxes or allow more artificial sweeteners on the market? Or..? [url]
- It's a myth that eating fat will make you fat -- eating an excess of calories from any source (eg. carbohydrate, protein, alcohol) makes you fat. In fact, the percentage of calories from fat from our diets has actually gone down in the US over the last 30 years, but obesity rates are clearly much higher. [url]
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Filed Under: calories, diet, dietary recommendations, fat, food, health, hfcs, moderation, myth, obesity, salt, sugar
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Low fat
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Not all sugars are good: avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Unless you're a corporatized weenie resolved to remain blind, it's easy to find reasoned links of HFCS to obesity and bad health. Corporatized processing of foods is far too extensive to even outline, so I'll just say: corporations aren't at all concerned for your health, kids, only with profits; if they can tweak taste or ingredients so you buy more, or make it cheaper substituting chemicals and fillers, then so long as doesn't too provably kill you they'll do it.
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Re: Low fat
That plus concurrent computer and television crazes where snacks are consumed continually in front of entertainments, and almost no one does real work. But you're certainly right that the advertising of low-calorie and healthful foods is a big cause, as everything corporations actually do is always opposite the benefits they state.
Once upon a time in a pleasant land now far far away, nutritionists were concerned with health. But that was before corporations put stock prices and profits above all.
Soy products were a big push in the 1970's too; that's usually filler having feminizing estrogens besides apparently fools your body into a sense of being hungry for longer, and more often -- half hour later, you're hungry again. Even McDonald's burgers used to be good before soy was put in; now I wouldn't advise you touch anything from fast food joints unless literally starving.
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incentives & news
"Fire Consumes Brazilian Sugar Mega-Terminal, 180,000 Tons Destroyed"
http://gcaptain.com/fire-consumes-brazilian-sugar/
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Salt and calories
1. Comparing recommended salt between nations where very hard physical work is the norm (and salt needs, due to sweat, etc., are very high) to the average American is naive. It is like saying apples are "similar" to oranges.
2. Alcohol does NOT result in fat, just fast-burning calories. True, if you eat and drink, you tend to use the alcohol calories and store the food calories, but then, if you live in space, breathing is a problem.
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Confusion
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