Sainsbury\u2019s sweet & sour chicken with rice and Tesco\u2019s Everyday Value sweet & sour chicken and rice contained 50.7g and 48.4g respectively \u2013 around ten teaspoons \u2013 in a meal for one; as do single serves of Old Jamaica Ginger Beer, Sainsbury\u2019s Cloudy Lemonade and many other carbonated drinks.
\n![\"Deep-fried](\"https:\/\/nutrishield.com\/images\/readymeal.jpg\" "\\"Deep-fried")
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This is roughly twice the 25.5g found in a standard size bar of milk chocolate.
\n![\"Deep-fried](\"https:\/\/nutrishield.com\/images\/chocbar.jpg\" "\\"Deep-fried")
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If you\u2019re eating this much hidden sugar, then the likelihood of becoming overweight must increase, even as the nutrient density of the food you eat declines. This is a diet full of pro-inflammatory compounds and depleted in anti-inflammatory ones; and it is hardly surprising, given this food environment, that waves of obesity, chronic inflammation and chronic degenerative disease are swamping our ability to provide health care.<\/p>\n
A new analysis has just found that the global number of overweight and obese individuals rocketed from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion (ie. a third of the world\u2019s population) in 2013; that no country has successfully reduced obesity rates in 33 years; and that we are, as a species, getting fatter at a progressively younger age (Ng et al \u201914). Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia and cancers inevitably follow in our increasingly broad wake.<\/p>\n
Our toxic food universe forms the upper of a pair of millstones that is grinding us into disease and premature death.<\/p>\n
The lower millstone is, of course, pharmaceutical medicine which is specific, expensive and very toxic (Starfield 2000). Seen in an historical perspective, modern medicine does little more than suppress the symptoms of diseases that have become rife due to our failure to maintain the lifestyles of our great-grandparents. This is why public health has become too expensive to continue in its present form, and too critical to be left to the medical profession.<\/p>\n
Last year, WHO Director Margaret Chan called for the food industry to assume responsibility for its toxic products and either mend their ways or have mandatory health warnings stamped on their packs.<\/p>\n
As part of the industry response, Tesco, the UK’s largest food retailer, announced that they would ban sweets and chocolates from their checkouts. Not wanting to be vulnerable to any \u2018nanny state\u2019 arguments, they claimed that a survey of customers had showed overwhelming support for the ban. Frankly I don\u2019t care why they did it; it is a positive move.<\/p>\n
The times may, at last, be changing.<\/p>\n
REFERENCES<\/p>\n
AoS May \u201914. http:\/\/www.actiononsalt.org.uk\/actiononsugar\/Press%20Release%20\/133642.pdf<\/p>\n
Frattaroli J, Weidner G, Dnistrian AM, Kemp C, Daubenmier JJ, Marlin RO, Crutchfield L, Yglecias L, Carroll PR,\u00a0Ornish\u00a0D. Clinical events in\u00a0prostate cancer\u00a0lifestyle trial: results from two years of follow-up. Urology. 2008 Dec;72(6):1319-23<\/p>\n
Kenfield SA, DuPre N, Richman EL, Stampfer MJ, Chan JM, Giovannucci\u00a0EL. Mediterranean\u00a0diet\u00a0and\u00a0prostate cancer\u00a0risk and mortality in the health professionals follow-up study. Eur Urol. 2014 May;65(5):887-94
\nNg M,\u00a0Fleming T,\u00a0Robinson M et al. Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity \u2026 analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. The Lancet, published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016\/S0140-6736(14)60460-8<\/p>\n
Starfield\u00a0B.\u00a0Is US health really the best in the world?\u00a0JAMA.\u00a02000 Jul 26;284(4):483-5.<\/p>\n
Stott-Miller M, Neuhouser ML, Stanford JL. Consumption of deep-fried foods and risk of prostate cancer. The Prostate, published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1002\/pros.22643<\/p>\n
Thomas R, Williams M, Sharma H, Chaudry A, Bellamy P. A double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised trial … polyphenol-rich whole food supplement \u2026 prostate cancer\u2014the UK NCRN Pomi-T study. Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Disease (2014) 17, 180\u2013186<\/p>\n
Which Magazine, May 2014. http:\/\/www.foodnavigator.com\/Market-Trends\/Shocking-levels-of-sugar-in-UK-ready-meals-says-Which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"