The Sweetest Nation
We’ve been having an ongoing Absalom conversation about the quantities of sugar in the American diet. Everything is so sweetened here and we’re not just talking about ice creams and chocolates (in as far as you can call Hersheys chocolate). To a European palate, American bread is sweetened to taste more like cake, salads are generally delivered to your restaurant table swimming in sugared dressings (this being the South, albeit masked by a spiced up BBQ flavour), and fruit is served not as dessert but alongside meat and vegetables as something ’savoury’. Recently Hannah went out to lunch with a few of her friends and was served a scone and lemon curd as an appetizer (she did the American thing and asked for a take-out box to bring it home in! It was then eaten at the proper time - for afternoon tea). Meanwhile I was at a working lunch the other day and the bread to accompany my soup was homemade Danish pastries. Delicious, but odd. Maybe that could be the new motto for the dollar bill?
Hannah’s latest thesis is that the USA must surely consume more than half of the world’s total sugar production. I think it would be so, except for the quantity of sugar that my Indian friends put in their tea.
So I’ve done a little research. Annual sugar consumption per person in the UK in the 1600’s was about 7 lb. Jumping the Atlantic, by the early 1800’s in the USA it was about 12 lbs per year, in 1980 it had shot up to 124lb, in 1997 it was 152lb, whilst today presumably (and judging by the average girth) the figure has continued its inexorable upwards progression.
In case I lost you there, this means the typical American consumes half a pound of sugar each day and over 5 tons in a lifetime.
Second helpings, anyone?
Common table sugar represents about 20 to 25 percent of the daily calorific intake of the average American. It is estimated that 75 percent of all sugar consumed comes from processed food. All this has an impact. As USA Today charmingly put it, “Children’s consumption of soft drinks is up nearly 500% since the 1950s. And kids are fatter than ever.”
The same newspaper reported recently that requiring larger belt sizes costs Americans about $36.5 billion per year, which equates to the amount of money needed to fund 730,000 more school teachers. Whilst this does sound an implausibly high figure ($100 a year per person??), nevertheless even if it’s only 10% of that sum, it is enormous. Oh yes, and there’s the little thing that studies have linked a high sugar intake with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature aging.
But the good news is that everyone here has perfectly straight teeth.
As one of our English friends emailed to us, “I’ve been reading your blog with great amusement! You’ve settled in a strange land… which is quite biblical I suppose.”
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:19 pm
lol! so, this is what happened in my schedule this evening: jogged, came home, made myself a bowl of ice cream (my weakness!) with chocolate syrup, turned on the computer to surf the regular websites i visit (bridgeway is one), and eat the ice cream i made while surfing the internet. anyway, in short, i was surfing bridgeway here and i came across this blog. what are the odds, right?!?! here i am eating ice cream (uh, the sugar consumption) and reading “The Sweetest Nation” blog.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
this is amazing!! As a memeber of a family who the majority of them are quite obese, I am amazed by the statistics of your blog. I have one word to say about the huge amounts of sugar we consume. Gross!!! I myself have been trying to not eat sugar. Those of us who are not affected in the obese catagory but still eat somewhat “unhealthaly?” Ie… processed foods, fast food and other things are not aware of what it does to the inside of our bodies. I have done some research on this.
First with the processed foods it is the hydrogonated oils and high fructose corn syrup that KILL our bodies and contribute to the obesity.
Not only the sugar.
Also with the sugar stuff I have heard that sugar is the number one cause of inflamation in the body. Which contributes to all sorts of problems in the body.
The picture posted is sad. Especially since you could find an equal number of children that look like that too.
Breaks my heart!!! Lets all have a tofurky for thanksgiving what do you think? jk
we need to curb the consumption for sure!!!
November 12th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
This blog is not surprising at all! I read an article not long ago about the food industry in American and how they lace everything with sugar because it forms a chemical addiction. I personally think that most American children do not suffer from ADD or ADHD but rather from sugar high and sugar lows. The affects cause moodiness and unattentiveness. Yet feeding them healthy things would take to much time, right?
December 6th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Alex,
Did you tell your English friend that Americans put honey in their tea as opposed to milk? And I’m waiting to see what you post about our pension for Raspberry/Peach/Mango flavored iced-Tea and what not.
The American diet is odd. Wait until you have some pot roast. It can be loaded with vegetables (Carrots and such) but you wouldn’t know it because the vegetables are covered in meat and almost taste like meat.
December 10th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Alex, I am hopefully awaiting a post from you on the over-reactions we tend to have to potentially serious weather!! Also I’d love to read about how you all celebrate Christmas differently, or differences you notice about the way the holiday is celebrated here! Sherry Sage