Diabetes News

Food costs are on the rise, as various news outlets have reported. But we need to look deeper into this whole phenomenon, something that TIME magazine's John Cloud helps us do. The intrepid reporter offers a wonderful perspective on our food spending patterns.

In fact, he says that despite the recent price increases, "Americans still spend less to feed themselves than any other people on the planet--probably less than any monetized society in history."

What's up, Americans? Why don't we Americans care about feeding ourselves well? Why do we fork over only 9.9 cents of every dollar we spend on food when people in Britain spend 16 % of their household expenditures on food; Brazilians, 23 percent, Thais, 29 percent?

TIME magazie's John Cloud also observes that these rising food costs are due to our food being shipped great distances and gas being high. He also cites demand for ethanol triggering the price of corn to spike, and thousands of processed foods containing such derivatives like high-fructose corn syrup. (Of course, as you'll read here and in my book SUGAR SHOCK!, I'm not a fan of HFCS nor other refined sweeteners.)

In the fascinating TIME story, you'll also learn about U.S. subsidies of corn, which lead corn-dervied snacks to be well prices and convenient; "Engel's law" about how "as you get rich, you spend proportionately less to eat"; etc.

And then, a big hurrah for reporter John Cloud, because he suggests: "In short, we should stop subsidizing junk [food]." What's more he points out that healthy food, on a dollar-per-nutrient basis is not more expensive and more satiating than processed junk food. Read the TIME article now.

As regular readers of this SUGAR SHOCK! Blog know, I attended and graduated from the amazing Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) in New York City, which brings in a Who's Who of nutrition experts to teach students there.

Now, as an alumni of IIN, I periodically receive e-mails about subjects of interest. I am including verbatim the contents of one such e-mail because it is vitally important. It's about the Farm Bill currently up for consideration in Congress.

I believe that it's important to galvanize as many people as possible to tell our legislators that they need to change the Farm Bill so that we make significant changes in the availability of healthy foods and nutrition education for Americans.

Please join the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and me to send an important message to your representatives in Congress so that they will realize that their constituents believe nutrition and health should be a major priority in the Farm Bill and that the bill should help:

• Improve the nutritional quality of school foods
• Increase the availability of fruits and vegetables in schools
• Expand research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Ensure that low-income pregnant women and small children have access to nutritious foods
• Strengthen nutrition education initiatives through the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program

This is what the Institute for Integrative Nutrition sent me:

Make your voice heard in Congress!

This month the American Congress will vote on the “Farm Bill,” a major piece of legislation on food, agriculture and nutrition in the U.S. for the next five years.

This legislation is a chance to make significant improvements to the availability of healthy foods and nutrition education in America. In partnership with Michael Jacobson and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Integrative Nutrition and our students and alumni are getting active.

Please take a moment now to send a message to your representative in Congress. Let them know that you think nutrition and health are a major priority.

When you're done, please forward this message to everyone you know. Your life depends on it!

Together we can rock this world! Thank you for your support.

Please click here to take action now.

Again, I urge you to please join the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and me so that we make our legislators realize that we need the Farm Bill to increase the availability of healthy foods and improve nutrition education for Americans.

Check out this interesting article on eDiets.com from psychotherapist Bob Livingstone, LCSW, which offers five compelling reasons to exercise other than the obvious ones.

Livingstone, author of Redemption of the Shattered: A Teenager's Healing Journey through Sandtray Therapy and the upcoming The Body-Mind-Soul Solution: Healing Emotional Pain through Exercise (now that sounds interesting, points out, for instance that getting off your butt for at least 15 minutes a day will help you "to discover a sense of inner peace."

And he maintains that this "sense of tranquility can improve the overall quality of your life. The gaining of calmness allows the physical and emotional stress to lessen. The tension in your shoulders, neck and stomach will greatly dissipate and even disappear while you are working out. You will discover a glow that takes place inside and outside of you."

Read the interesting article now.

Thanks to Calorie Lab for joining in and spreading the word about the fact that Americans are just eating way too much sugar. Sarah White for the site's Calorie Counter news section discusses our love affair with the substance while summarizing the wonderful CBS News Sunday Mornng story, "Is America Too Sweet on Sugar?," which aired last Sunday.

FYI, while Calorie Lab points out that my brain fog lifted when I kicked sugar and refined carbs, that was only one of many conditions that completely vanished. In addition, my excessive fatigue, mood swings, severe PMS, ferocious headaches and other ailments also totally vanished -- just from kicking all those culprit carbs. In fact, I tell my amazing story in chapter 1 of SUGAR SHOCK! I invite you to learn about my remarkable transformation by getting my book now.

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Parents, you've been besieging me for years with questions like, "How do I help my sugar-loving kids cut back on their habit?"

Or you've been repeatedly asking me, "How do I get my children to enjoy vegetables?"

Parents, I have some help for you -- so you, in turn, can help your youngsters.

I'm presenting a special teleseminar on July 17 with famous obesity expert David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Ludwig, author of Ending the Food Fight, will give you all kinds of helpful pointers to get your kids to eat more healthily, feel better, and ultimately live longer.

To prepare you for our exciting July 17 teleseminar, I highly recommend that you get Dr. Ludwig's must-read-for-parents book, Ending the Food Fight.

In this book -- which is written in a warm, compassionate bedside manner -- Dr. Ludwig some simple, but effective ideas to turn your kids' passion for junk food into enjoyment for healthy vegetables, fruits, etc.

If anyone is equipped to give advice to parents to help their overweigt youngstgers, it's Dr. Ludwig. He's an endocrinologist at Harvard, who has pioneered the use of a low-glycemic diet in combating obesity.

Not only that, but his groundbreaking research is the basis for some of the most successful diets of the last decade, including the South Beach Diet and Sugar Busters.

In addition, Dr. Ludwig has personally helped more than 5,000 youngsters himself. Ten years ago, he founded the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Children's Hospital Boston. There, he and his team tailored his low-glycemic diet for children and combined it with a nine-week progressive plan that benefits the patient and the entire family.

Ending the Food Fight addresses, for the first time, all three key factors affecting body weight -- biology, behavior, and environment -- and integrates them into a powerful prescription for weight loss.

And you have the rare opportunity to gain access to this cutting-edge physician. Get more info now about this exciting July 17 teleseminar with Dr. David Ludwig.Hope to see you on July 17.

As you may already have read here, the Center for Science in the Public Interest reached an "historic settlement agreement" with the Kellogg Co. to limit the sugar content of cereals advertised to kids under age 12.

Now, I'd like to invite you to listen to CSPI founder director Michael Jacobson's reaction. Kudos definitely go to the organization for its hard work in getting the cereal manufacturer to back down somewhat.

But, while I applaud the CSPI for forcing Kellogg's to have more of a conscience about how much sugar is put into cereals, I'm leaning now towards thinking that the agreement may not be as wonderful as many have been led to believe.

However, this is a really wonderful first step. Let's just hope that the Kellogg Co. and other processed food companies take even stronger measures now to reduce sugar content so that kids all across America aren't starting their days with a mega dose of the substance that could lead to a number of ailments.

I'd really like to see these companies start to put -- if they haven't already -- some of the R&D budget (research & development) budget into creating some sugar-free, high-fiber cereals.

You can listen to me at 8 am on "The Big Show" with Michael Patrick Shiels, a radio program that is aired on 12 stations statewide on The Michigan Talk Network.

We're going to talk about the recent Kellogg's story about how the company is avoiding litigation by making some changes to improve the nutritional value of their cereal. What a great topic!

Listeners of "The Big Show," write to me here and let me know that you tuned in today. The first three listeners who contact me here at my SUGAR SHOCK! Blog will receive a free teleseminar on Wed., July 17 with famous children's obesity expert David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., who will help you help your kids to slim down. You'll be in for a real treat!

Explains the concept of net carbs and how to apply it when counting the carbohydrates in a food.

Explains the concept of net carbs and how to apply it when counting the carbohydrates in a food.

Thank you, CBS News Sunday Morning -- in particular correspondent Susan Spencer and producer Jason Sacca -- for today's very intriguing, informative lead story about sugar.

Susan and Jason, of course, as well as CBS, deserve major kudos for shedding light on this important subject, and I do hope and believe that CBS News Sunday Morning's five million viewers will find the segment quite eye-opening.

It's my greatest hope that the millions who saw the CBS News Sunday Morning story will reassess their intake of sugar and refined carbs and think about cutting them out -- or at least cutting back -- so they may get more energy, concentrate better, peel off the pounds, and maybe even reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes.

Wow! Susan did a spectacular job pulling together so many intriguing bits of information and then weaving them into a highly enjoyable, engrossing segment. (Susan -- who creates impressive, thoughtful stories -- really draws you in when presenting some salient facts and fascinating tidbits about Americans' love affair with sugar.)

For those of you who missed this morning's CBS News Sunday Morning segment, right now you can read the transcript of the sugar story here. (Of course, you'll miss out on the dazzling video footage, which included oodles of gooey, sugary foods; obese people waddling along; interviews with experts, including the one Susan did with me, as well as with one of my favorite experts, David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D. (read on); sugar historian Sidney W. Mintz, author of Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History; a representative from the Sugar Association; and a crowd of about 200 gathered at my recent book signing and my signing copies of SUGAR SHOCK! at Border's at Columbus Circle in New York City.)

I'm very grateful to CBS News Sunday Morning for showcasing my book SUGAR SHOCK!, which has received, much-appreciated, pivotal support from contributing author Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. and Nicholas Perricone, M.D., who wrote the foreword. In addition, I'm indebted to numerous bestselling authors and top health experts for endorsing the book including frequent "Oprah" guest Mehmet Oz, M.D., author of YOU: On A Diet.

It was a pleasure to be included in CBS News Sunday Morning's important piece, and it was nice to see that David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., one of the health experts I greatly admire and recommended, was quoted in the CBS News Sunday Morning segment.

Speaking of Dr. Ludwig, mark your calendars. On Tues., July 17, this world famous children's obesity expert -- author of Ending the Food Fight -- is participating in an exciting teleseminar with me to teach parents how to help their kids slim down.

Parents, this is your amazing opportunity to ask questions of this knowledgeable expert, and we'd love to have you. Just sign up here now for this July 17 event. (Please note that the date has been rescheduled.)

For the record: While the CBS News Sunday Morning piece was absolutely fabulous, comprehensive and entertaining, I'd like to clarify some figures cited in the story.

According to the USDA, the average American consumes about 142.6 pounds per year or a little more than 3/4 of a cup per day of added caloric sweeteners, including refined sugar (from cane and beets), high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup and dextrose. However, I believe, as do other experts, that the average American takes in more like 170 pounds per year or just shy of a cup of sugar per day. It's important to note that this 142-pound figure (or 170-pound figure) does not include artificial sweeteners, as mentioned in the CBS piece.

In fact, if you add in stats for artificially sweetened foods and drinks, the figures are considerably higher. According to the Calorie Control Council, a whopping 180 million American adults (as of 2004) consume low-calorie and sugar-free sodas, other beverages and foods using five different sugar substitutes approved by the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame-K, sucralose and neotame.

Which, of course, begs the question. Are these sugar substitutes safe to consume? This is one of the Frequently Asked Questions I answer in SUGAR SHOCK! (I had to cover this, because while researching my book, thousands of people I've been coaching or connecting with online wanted to know if they reduce their sugar intake if it's OK to drank or eat foods using sugar substitutes.)

I was shocked at what I learned. Interviews with health experts revealed that questions have been raised about the safety of all artificial sweeteners on the market -- this, despite repeated claims from the FDA and the companies creating them. In SUGAR SHOCK! you also can learn about what some experts call a "paradoxical weight gain" that some people experience when ingesting foods with artificial sweeteners.

Anyhow, back to the wonderful CBS News Sunday Morning sugar story. I recommend that you read the transcript here now.

Again, thank you CBS News Sunday Morning. Hats off to you, Susan Spencer, for your diligence, dedication and intrepid reporting. And applause goes to you, Jason, for coming up with the idea for this segment in the first place and for so seamlessly pulling together various sources and concepts for this piece. Your viewers will benefit from your hard work. It was also an honor and pleasure to work with both of you.

By the way, I'm also grateful that the CBS News Sunday Morning story featured the cover of my book in the segment. Americans are curious, which has been evident since all day SUGAR SHOCK! has been moving up the charts.

At last look, SUGAR SHOCK! soared from #3,153 around 9:15 in the morning to # 43 on Amazon late Sunday night/early Monday morning. Meanwhile, BarnesAndNoble.com also saw an upswing in sales to # 77.

Join in the movement to learn about and stop SUGAR SHOCK! now -- get this book for you, a loved one and a work colleague. I like to believe that this book can not only open your eyes, but help you to break free from your sugar habit. (That's my intention at least, and according to the dozens of e-mails I've received, it does just that.)

Thought you'd find the following interesting:

Product Details

Now here's BarnesAndNoble.com:

• Paperback
• ISBN: 0425213579
• Pub. Date: December 2006
• Sales Rank: 77
• Customer Rating: