What You Eat Matters! Cut Back On Sugary Packaged Good To Mitigate Heart Disease, Diabetes Risk

Heart diseases and diabetes are becoming more common than ever across the globe. So, you should do whatever you can to protect your health. How about starting by cutting back on sugary foods?

If you don't already know, excessive sugar in your food can be detrimental to your health! From the obvious sources like cakes, cookies to more disguised sources like pasta sauce and bread, most packaged foods contain added sugar that unfortunately increases your risk of developing health issues. Preliminary studies have linked consuming sugary foods and beverages with obesity and diseases like type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, some of the leading causes of mortality in the world.

How Do Packaged Goods Affect Your Health?

Sugar, artificial chemicals, refined carbs, and trans fats are all common constituents in highly processed foods, often known as ultra-processed foods. As a result, they are a major source of obesity and illness across the world. The consumption of ultra-processed foods has risen considerably in recent decades around the world. In many parts of the world, these foods currently account for 25 60 per cent of a person's daily energy intake, as per a study published in the British Medical Journal.

Added sugar and high fructose corn syrup are common in processed foods. Sweetened beverages are a particularly significant source of sugar; people consume far more sugar in soft drinks than they think. Added sugar is high in calories but lacks critical elements. Consuming an excessive amount of added sugar on a regular basis might lead to compulsive overeating. It can also lead to health problems such as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory diseases.

Cutting Back On Sugar From Packaged Foods Can Reduce The Risk

A new study has found that cutting 20 per cent of sugar from packaged foods and 40 per cent from beverages can reduce the risk of mortality as well as the onset of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Tufts University and others found that reducing sugar in packaged foods and beverages can mitigate the risk of 2.48 million cardiovascular disease events (such as strokes, heart attacks, and cardiac arrests), 490,000 cardiovascular deaths, and 750,000 diabetes cases in the United States alone.

Lead author and attending physician at MGH, Siyi Shangguan said, "reducing the sugar content of commercially prepared foods and beverages will have a larger impact on the health of Americans than other initiatives to cut sugar, such as imposing a sugar tax, labelling added sugar content, or banning sugary drinks in schools."

As per Dariush Mozaffarian, co-senior author and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, "sugar is one of the most obvious additives in the food supply to reduce to reasonable amounts."

It is time to cut back on consuming processed foods. It might take more effort than you think but it is important and required. So, what are you waiting for? Jumpstart and start eating clean today, and switch these sugary processed foods with some simple, healthier alternatives like granola bars, salad dressing, flavoured dressing, and more.