Dietary Sugars and Health


Book Description

Sugar consumption is suspected to play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, fatty liver disease, and some forms of cancers. Dietary sugars—fructose in particular—also have a potential role in obesity and metabolic diseases. Dietary Sugars and Health presents all aspects of dietary sugars as they relate to health and disease. It provides a review of the current science related to dietary sugars, ranging from historical and cultural perspectives to food science and production to basic research, animal trials, human pathophysiology, epidemiology, and public health policy implications. Each chapter features a concise, thorough summary of the current knowledge, including an overview of cutting-edge research, controversies, and future perspectives. The book provides a balanced approach through global and multidisciplinary contributions as well as input from various sectors, from academia to the food and beverage industry. The overall collection provides readers with a balanced and complete view of the science related to dietary sugars and health. This book is an invaluable reference for food scientists, nutrition scientists, clinical and translational researchers, obesity researchers, physiologists, public health scientists, and policy makers.




Obesity Epidemiology


Book Description

During the past twenty years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. An estimated thirty percent of adults in the US are obese; in 1980, only fifteen percent were. The issue is gaining greater attention with the CDC and with the public health world in general. This book will offer practical information about the methodology of epidemiologic studies of obesity, suitable for graduate students and researchers in epidemiology, and public health practitioners with an interest in the issue. The book will be structured in four main sections, with the majority of chapters authored by Dr. Hu, and some authored by specialists in specific areas. The first section will consider issues surrounding the definition of obesity, measurement techniques, and the designs of epidemiologic studies. The second section will address the consequences of obesity, looking at epidemiologic studies that focus on cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, and cancer The third section will look at determinants obesity, reviewing a wide range of risk factors for obesity including diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviors, sleep disorders, psychosocial factors, physical environment, biochemical and genetic predictors, and intrauterine exposures. In the final section, the author will discuss the analytical issues and challenges for epidemiologic studies of obesity.




Guideline: Sugars Intake for Adults and Children


Book Description

This guideline provides updated global, evidence-informed recommendations on the intake of free sugars to reduce the risk of NCDs in adults and children, with a particular focus on the prevention and control of unhealthy weight gain and dental caries. The recommendations in this guideline can be used by policy-makers and programme managers to assess current intake levels of free sugars in their countries relative to a benchmark. They can also be used to develop measures to decrease intake of free sugars, where necessary, through a range of public health interventions. Examples of such interventions and measures that are already being implemented by countries include food and nutrition labelling, consumer education, regulation of marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages that are high in free sugars, and fiscal policies targeting foods and beverages that are high in free sugars. This guideline should be used in conjunction with other nutrient guidelines and dietary goals, in particular those related to fats and fatty acids (including saturated fatty acids and trans-fatty acids), to guide development of effective public health nutrition policies and programmes to promote a healthy diet.




Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxation in the Region of the Americas


Book Description

Sugar-sweetened beverage excise taxes are an effective evidence-based noncommunicable diseases (NCD) prevention policy. Along with tobacco and alcohol excise taxes, they are a tool to attain the Sustainable Development Goals, and are recommended by the World Health Organization to modify behavioral risk factors associated with obesity and NCDs, as featured in the WHO Global Action Plan. Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages have been described as a triple win for governments, because they 1) improuve population health, 2) generate revenue, and 3) have the potential to reduce long-term associated healthcare costs and productivity losses. Taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages has been implemented in more than 73 countries worldwide. In the Region of the Americas, 21 PAHO/WHO Member States apply national-level excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and seven jurisdictions apply local sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in the United States of America. While the number of countries applying national excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages in the Region is promising, most of these taxes could be further leveraged to improve their impact on sugar-sweetened beverages consumption and health. This publication provides economic concepts related to the economic rationale for using sugar-sweetened beverage taxes and the costs associated with obesity; key considerations on tax design including tax types, bases, and rates; an overview of potential tax revenue and earmarking; evidence on the extent to which these taxes are expected to impact prices of taxed beverages, the demand for taxed beverages, and substitution to untaxed beverages; and responses to frequent questions about the economic impacts of sugar-sweetened beverage taxation.




The World is Fat


Book Description

Discusses the history of human obesity worldwide, and examines how trends in technology, globalization, government policies, and the food industry affect all physical aspects of human life.




Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease


Book Description

Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, Fourth Edition, is a compilation of current knowledge in clinical nutrition and an overview of the rationale and science base of its application to practice in the prevention and treatment of disease. In its fourth edition, this text continues the tradition of incorporating new discoveries and methods related to this important area of research Generating and analyzing data that summarize dietary intake and its association with disease are valuable tasks in treating disease and developing disease prevention strategies. Well-founded medical nutrition therapies can minimize disease development and related complications. Providing scientifically sound, creative, and effective nutrition interventions is both challenging and rewarding. - Two new chapters on metabolomics and translational research, which have come to be used in nutrition research in recent years. The new areas of study are discussed with the perspective that the application of the scientific method is by definition an evolutionary process. - A new chapter on Genetics and Diabetes which reviews the latest research on causal genetic variants and biological mechanisms responsible for the disease, and explores potential interactions with environmental factors such as diet and lifestyle. - Includes all major "omics" – the exposome, metabolomics, genomics, and the gut microbiome. - Expands the microbiota portions to reflect complexity of diet on gut microbial ecology, metabolism and health







Salt Sugar Fat


Book Description

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the troubling story of the rise of the processed food industry -- and how it used salt, sugar, and fat to addict us. Salt Sugar Fat is a journey into the highly secretive world of the processed food giants, and the story of how they have deployed these three essential ingredients, over the past five decades, to dominate the North American diet. This is an eye-opening book that demonstrates how the makers of these foods have chosen, time and again, to double down on their efforts to increase consumption and profits, gambling that consumers and regulators would never figure them out. With meticulous original reporting, access to confidential files and memos, and numerous sources from deep inside the industry, it shows how these companies have pushed ahead, despite their own misgivings (never aired publicly). Salt Sugar Fat is the story of how we got here, and it will hold the food giants accountable for the social costs that keep climbing even as some of the industry's own say, "Enough already."




The Case Against Sugar


Book Description

From the best-selling author of Why We Get Fat, a groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé that makes the convincing case that sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium: backed by powerful lobbies, entrenched in our lives, and making us very sick. Among Americans, diabetes is more prevalent today than ever; obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly 10% of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is at the root of these, and other, critical society-wide, health-related problems. With his signature command of both science and straight talk, Gary Taubes delves into Americans' history with sugar: its uses as a preservative, as an additive in cigarettes, the contemporary overuse of high-fructose corn syrup. He explains what research has shown about our addiction to sweets. He clarifies the arguments against sugar, corrects misconceptions about the relationship between sugar and weight loss; and provides the perspective necessary to make informed decisions about sugar as individuals and as a society.




Global Report on Diabetes


Book Description

"On the occasion of World Health Day 2016, WHO issues a call for action on diabetes, drawing attention to the need to step up prevention and treatment of the disease. The first WHO Global report on diabetes demonstrates that the number of adults living with diabetes has almost quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults. This dramatic rise is largely due to the rise in type 2 diabetes and factors driving it include overweight and obesity. In 2012 alone diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths. Its complications can lead to heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputation. The new report calls upon governments to ensure that people are able to make healthy choices and that health systems are able to diagnose, treat and care for people with diabetes. It encourages us all as individuals to eat healthily, be physically active, and avoid excessive weight gain."--Publisher's description.