Sugar, diabetes link broken
Publication: Daily Nation
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 1997
Page: 2A
Byline: Terry Ally
THE fear that the use of sugars, starch and other carbohydrates will cause you to become fat, develop diabetes or heart disease is groundless, say experts.
The Joint Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Health Organisation (FAO/WHO) Expert Consultation on Carbohydrates in Human Nutrition, which made the pronouncement, also recommended that children adopt adult diets by age five.
The consultation brought together nutritionists, physicians and biochemists from 13 countries at the last meeting, a few weeks ago, in Geneva.
They found no direct evidence that people could become obese as a result of using sugars or starches commonly found in foods such cereals, bread, potatoes, rice and other root crops.
There was much controversy in this area for years but the panel said that the plain and simple reason for someone becoming fat was if they ate too much without exercising enough to "burn" off that energy.
The experts also dismissed myths that if you ate too much sugar you were likely to develop diabetes.
"The consultation recommendations concerning carbohydrate intake and diabetes related primarily to the avoidance of all energy-dense foods in order to reduce diabetes," stated the FAO.
They also found that the use of sucrose was not one of the causes of coronary disease and they advocated the increased use of carbohydrate-rich foods, especially cereals, vegetables and fruits, rather than fat, to help reduce coronary heart disease risk.
Sugar was also found not to make children hyperactive, as some people believed.
The FAO/WHO panel recommended that by age five, children should reduce fat intake and increase the portion of carbohydrates to that of adults as a precaution for the prevention of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.