This fascinating segment from 60 Minutes with Sanjay Gupta shows why sugar may be classified as a toxin and linked to heart disease, cancer, hypertension, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist, started the anti-sugar campaign in 2009 with his YouTube video, Sugar: The Bitter Truth. While Dr. Lustig’s views about sugar were previously considered controversial, there is now new scientific research supporting him.
“But now, studies done by Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis are starting to back him up. She’s in the middle of a groundbreaking, five-year study which has already shown strong evidence linking excess high fructose corn syrup consumption to an increase in risk factors for heart disease and stroke. That suggests calories from added sugars are different than calories from other foods.”
“Stanhope’s conclusions weren’t easy to come by. Nutrition studies are expensive and difficult. Stanhope has paid groups of research subjects to live in this hospital wing for weeks at a time, under a sort of 24-hour lockdown. They undergo scans and blood tests – every calorie they ingest, meticulously weighed and prepared.”
Surprisingly, Stanhope found that after only two weeks of drinking sugary drinks with high fructose corn syrup, they had increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including higher LDL cholesterol levels. After seeing the powerful data, Stanhope decided to drastically reduce the sugar in her own diet!
“So imagine, for these healthy young people, drinking a sweetened drink might be just as bad for their hearts as the fatty cheeseburgers we’ve all been warned about since the 1970s.”
A Harvard professor, Lewis Cantley, explained how sugar is a catalyst in some common types of cancer, actually causing the tumors to grow! While his team is working on a drug to prevent the tumors from growing, Cantley advises to avoid eating sugar. Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute, has shown through MRI scans that sugar is addictive like cocaine.
“Eric Stice says by scanning hundreds of volunteers, he’s learned that people who frequently drink sodas or eat ice cream or other sweet foods may be building up a tolerance, much like drug users do. As strange as it sounds, that means the more you eat, the less you feel the reward. The result: you eat more than ever.”
The good news is that NuGo Nutrition has many options to help you reduce sugar. All NuGo bars are 100% natural and free of high fructose corn syrup. Since NuGo bars are high quality protein coated in only a small amount of luscious real dark or milk chocolate, they contain significantly less sugar and fat than other brands of protein bars. Additionally, NuGO Slim contains only 2 grams of sugar from REAL Dark Chocolate and chicory root. NuGO Slim is the first low sugar protein bar without sugar alcohols or maltitol, which can cause gastric distress and a bad aftertaste. NuGo Family is certified low glycemic.
Click here to watch the 60 Minutes video, Is Sugar Toxic?, and watch the informative extras, including a segment about kids and sugar. Sanjay Gupta recommends eating real food to avoid added sugars and reading labels to cut down on sugar. How many calories of added sugars should a woman consume in a day? Less than the amount in one can of soda!
We are passionate about educating consumers that there is no FDA standard of identity for dark chocolate. Without a standard of identity, companies can call a product dark chocolate on the front of a package without using real dark chocolate ingredients! This means consumers are being confused and misled that they are eating healthy snacks coated in dark chocolate, while actually consuming unhealthy chocolate flavored palm oil (saturated fat)!
