The news is pretty grim. A recent study has shown that when sugar is consumed at recommended levels, it can still double the risk of dying in female mice.
Till now the idea has been that it is safe to consume sugar if it is no more than 25% of our total calorie intake. This translates to restricting our sugar consumption to no more than 125 grams per day. The average consumption of sugar in the US is at 150 grams per day. This implies that most people in the US are consuming what is considered as “safe” amounts of sugar. So scientists at the University of Utah decided to put this idea to the test. Are we in fact consuming sugar at safe levels?
They took 153 mice and divided them into two groups. One group was fed a diet with no sugar. The other group was given a diet so that 25% of calories came from sugar. They then sat back and observed the animals for 26 weeks. In the group where no sugar was fed 17% of females died. While in the sugar-fed group 34% females died. A diet containing “normal” levels of sugar proved lethal, doubling the rate at which animals were dying! This is simply an astonishing result and not something that anybody expected.
The idea that sugar is a safe substance has allowed us to add it to many different foods. You will find that sugar is being added to bread, cereal, yogurt, ketchup, sauces, dressings, chips, fries, peanut-butter, baked beans, and even a slice of pizza contains 3.8 grams of sugar! So even if you have not had any sugary drink or consumed any cookies or cakes, you may still be consuming more than 120 grams of sugar per day! In 1822 the average consumption of sugar in the US (and most of the rest of the world) was at about 9 grams per day, while today it is around 150 grams per day! All this because of the notion that it is “safe” to consume sugar at these levels.
Now this idea is crumbling. There is increasing alarm amongst scientists and doctors that the so-called safe levels of sugar are not what they seem to be. This study demonstrates this pretty effectively. Till the point we have definitive studies to determine safe levels of sugar, we must in the meantime be cautious about the amount of sugar we put in our mouths.
Related: Sugar is Toxic to Mice in ‘Safe’ Dose
Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah.