Stop the Sweetness!

      Stop the Sweetness!

          Modern humans, especially those in the United States, have developed an astonishing taste for sugar. On average, we consume 500 calories from sugar daily, despite suggestions that sugar will damage our health. 

       With the playful, colorful packaging of candies and cans of soda, who can blame the average consumer for believing that sugars, in moderation, are perfectly fine?  The problem is that most people have no idea what a moderate amount of sugar is. 

According to the World Health Organization, it is vastly less than many people might assume. 

       When you look at the information label on the back of a 20 oz bottle of Coke, you’ll see the gram amount of sugar, but no indication of its percent daily value. This number is available for fat, sodium, and carbs, but not sugar. 

      In March of this year, the World Health Organization released its updated recommendation for our daily intake of added sugars. They suggest that we consume 6 teaspoons, or 24 grams, of sugar per day for ideal health. The maximum suggested amount is 12 teaspoons, or 48 grams. 

         Remember that 20 oz bottle of Coke you had for lunch? It contained 65 grams of sugar. Over 200% of the World Health Organization's suggested amount for the day. This raises an important question: If you saw that percentage on your beverage, would you drink it? 

         In August of this year, the FDA passed regulations that will require all food and beverage producers to include the sugar percentage on nutrition labels. 

        Many studies have shown that the excessive consumption of sugar is linked to a multitude of health problems. Sugar is said to silence the “fullness” hormone, leading to weight gain and obesity. It has been tied to memory loss, heart disease, and dental decay. Sugar in excess is understood to affect the liver in the same ways as alcohol abuse. Some studies have even suggested that sugar may play a role in breast and colon cancers. 

         Arguments about sugar and the sugar industry abound. Health officials are always at odds with industries that rely on heavy sugar consumption. Contested issues include the severity of health affects, risk of addiction, and controversial marketing strategies that target children. 

          There are even a number of accusations that sugar-dependent industries behave like the tobacco industry. It has been suggested that certain soft drink producers fund their own scientific research, and donate massive sums of money to community health programs in exchange for the adjustment of their mantras. "Health isn't about what you eat or drink. It's about how active you are." I heard this one in a recent Coca-Cola commercial.  
          
         Unlike the sugars present in fruits, which enter your system accompanied by fiber and vitamins, you need to watch out for those that are added at the time of processing. These include fructose, glucose, sucrose, cane sugars, syrups, and dextrose. These sugars have no nutritional value, but are added to make food more appealing. 


Huffington Post, 2013:
Ten Things You Don't Know About Sugar

American Journal of Physiology, 2009: 
Fructose Inhibits the "Fullness Hormone."

Nature Journal, 2012: 
Fructose Can Cause the Same Health Effects as Alcohol

Georgia State University: 
Sugar Impairs Memory in Rats

Newsweek, 2014: 
Sugar Lobbies Threaten Organizations, Bury Science

Center for Science and Democracy, 2014:
Industry Obscures Science, Undermines Public Health Policy on Sugar
       

How the Lens Came to Cataract Surgery

Many of us are familiar with the basic premise behind cataract surgery: when the lens inside of your eye gets cloudy, it's out with the old, and in with the new. Your surgeon breaks up the old lens, suctions it out, and implants a new, bright-and-shiny lens called an IOL, or Intraocular Lens.         

Both cataract surgery and lenses had LONG independent histories before they finally teamed up in 1950. It was then that they began their dual task of restoring and perfecting vision for millions of people around the world.

(This lens, the Loupe of Sargon, was fashioned in 750 BC in Assyrian Nimrud.)

Lenses begin to appear in the archaeological record as early as 750 BC, in ancient Greece, Egypt, and Babylon. These were made of polished quartz, and were used for starting fires and magnification. It is said that ancient Greeks used this technology to keep their "eternal Olympic flame" aglow by divine power.

Around the same time, cataract surgery began to appear in medical texts of India, and then of China. The procedure served only to push the cloudy lens material out of the eye, but there was nothing to replace it.

(Monet's "House Seen From the Rose Garden" after cataract surgery. Some people report that they can see ultraviolet light when the UV absorbing lens has been removed)

With no lens to replace the missing one, the eyes lose their focusing power and become very far-sighted. Obviously, this won't do if you're a painter, a surgeon, a shoemaker, or a bug collector.

(The first IOL, implanted in November 1949.)

It would be 1949 before lenses were finally modulated for use in the eye. The chosen material was deemed viable after ophthalmologists were able to observe eye injuries sustained by pilots of the Royal Air Force during World War II. Shattered pieces of Plexiglas resisted infection and remained inert inside the eyes of the wounded. Glass splinters of the same sort were rejected by the body.     

Further developments in design and technique had to come about before IOLs made their way into widespread practice. Today, tens of millions of IOLs are implanted worldwide every year.