Soft drinks, industrial pastries, dairy desserts, ketchup, alcoholic beverages … These are all common foods in our Western diet: highly caloric, very appetizing and rich in added sugars. To this list we could add, among many others, the cereals we consume for breakfast, energy drinks, jams, etc.
The food industry makes use of this element that is so attractive to the human palate, sugar, to enhance the flavor of all these products, eventually causing a clear dependence on these processed foods.
The World Health Organization estimates 25 grams of sugar per day as a recommended amount, establishing a maximum limit for adults of 50 grams. However, consumption in Western societies far exceeds this limit, standing at 70 grams per day per person in Spain and 126.4 in the United States (Pablos, 2016).
These rates only include free sugars, that is, those added artificially during food processing. The natural sugars present, for example, in fruit, do not constitute a serious danger.
The effects of irresponsible sugar consumption
The counterproductive effects of this high intake of processed sugars are not limited to simple cavities, but go much further. While in developing countries the main cause of death is infectious diseases, in developed countries the vast majority of deaths are due to non-communicable diseases. Among these, the vast majority are aggravated by lifestyle and diet; These include cardiovascular diseases (stroke, myocardial infarction, etc.) and metabolic diseases, that is, diabetes mellitus, obesity, atherosclerosis, hyperlipidemia and hypertension. The intake of the foods mentioned above and, consequently, the accumulation of excess fat in the body, cause these diseases to worsen (Álvarez-Campillo, 2009).
Faced with this Western epidemic of sugar addiction, countries like the United Kingdom are considering taxing the consumption of sugary soft drinks. with taxes of up to 20%. Others, such as Hungary, establish this rate based on the amount of sugar, fat and salt contained in the food. This measure caused many manufacturers to reduce these ingredients to avoid paying more taxes, resulting in positive changes in consumers’ diets (Galindo, 2016).
In his book El mono obeso (2010), José Enrique Campillo Álvarez answers this question from the point of view of Darwinian medicine. This medical approach, also called evolutionary medicine, studies diseases from the context of biological evolution. Assuming that the current “design” of the human being is the result of millions of years of evolution and genetic variation, the disease would occur when it does not adapt to the demands of the environment.
Our ancestors evolved in contexts in which food scarcity was chronic, also requiring a large amount of physical exercise to obtain scarce supplies. This situation, which occurred over millions of years, caused, through natural selection, the survival of those individuals who had the necessary genetic adaptations to make the most of periods of abundance and resist those of scarcity. Among these adaptations are those that promote metabolic processes that help the accumulation of fat after eating. Also those that favor the maintenance of these lipid deposits when food is scarce.
The abundance of food, the first step towards denaturation
However, all this changed since the development of agriculture and livestock farming approximately 15,000 years ago. In contrast to what was happening with the scarcity that our ancestors suffered, with the development of these technologies there was an abundance that had not been seen since our great-great-grandparents, the Ardipithecus ramidus, lived in lush jungles, full of fruits within reach. This technological development has reached the point mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Today, without spending much energy, we can eat large amounts of food despite the fact that in biology there is a universal law that establishes that every living being needs to “pay” a certain amount of energy through physical activity in order to be able to take something away. mouth. This is the ideal scenario for sugar addiction to appear. because its availability has increased, but the same has not happened with our biological design.
According to Campillo, it seems that, despite what the popular saying maintains, We are not what we eat, but rather we are a product of what our ancestors ate. Following the latest scientific research, it is also suspected that the human body requires a certain amount of physical exercise to achieve normal functioning and maintain a homeostatic balance.
For example, contrary to the general belief that the heart of athletes hypertrophies as a result of high physical exercise, it would be the organ of the rest of the population that has not acquired the ideal size. Therefore, with our body having a design that does not adapt to the circumstances of the current environment, there is an internal shock that gives rise to diseases of opulence.
What are the diseases of opulence?
Obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis often go hand in hand so this group of diseases has been framed within the so-called Metabolic Syndrome linked to sugar addiction. This, in turn, usually leads to cardiovascular disease.
A diet with a hypercaloric and unbalanced intake and a sedentary life could lead, for example, to a progressive accumulation of fat. After eating foods that contain sugars, they are metabolized and transformed into glucose, which would be distributed throughout the body. When there is excess glucose that is not used, it is transformed into fat in adipose tissue. This accumulation can become excessive in the belly area, making this central obesity an important risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases.
Type 2 diabetes, whose number of people affected will grow to 300 million in 2025, is one that generally appears in adults. It is usually associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. It causes a deficit in the assimilation of sugars in the body, which causes glucose to accumulate in the blood (hyperglycemia) and cannot be used as a source of energy. Insulin, secreted by the pancreas, is responsible for facilitating glucose entry into the cells. People with type 2 diabetes develop insulin resistance, causing these problems. In recent times, its incidence in children and adolescents is increasing due to the abuse of sweets and pastries. The main consequence of untreated type 2 diabetes is myocardial infarction and other heart problems.
The term hyperlipidemia refers to an excess of fat circulating in the bloodstream. Given the impossibility of its dissolution in the blood, Fats travel through the arteries, favoring the appearance of cholesterol deposits on the walls of these. On the other hand, in atherosclerosis, excessive harmful fats form plaques in the arteries. Upon reaching a point of accumulation at which blood can no longer circulate, a heart attack would occur (if it occurs in the arteries of the heart) or a stroke (in an artery of the brain), leading to the death of the tissue that is seen. affected by not receiving blood.
Finally, hypertension would also affect adults and would be another triggering factor for cardiovascular diseases, in addition to accelerating atherosclerosis. Its visible symptoms may not appear until well into the disease, when the excessive blood pressure overloads the arteries so much that it leads to one of them rupturing.
Prevent Metabolic Syndrome
For no person is the prospect of suffering from these conditions pleasant and, despite this, the vast majority of the population does nothing about it to avoid it. Food education and awareness on these issues by health authorities could help stop to a certain extent, this epidemic caused by the diseases of opulent societies. Given that the human genome has not changed in the last thousands of years, the closer we bring our lifestyle to the biological design of our body, the more our health will thank us.
Regarding dietary guidelines, as a doctor Campillo recommends reducing the current daily amount of calories ingested, reducing the intake of fast carbohydrates (sweets), increasing the consumption of foods that contain vegetable fiber and reducing those with saturated fats and trans fats, in addition to paying special attention to foods that contain chemicals that may be toxic or contaminating. Regarding physical exercise, to balance the scales, moderate intensity and long duration activity is recommended. That is, for example, walking for an hour a day at a good pace or jogging for at least forty minutes three to four days a week. A good distance to walk would be 6 kilometers a day, or 12,000 steps if you have a step counter.
In conclusion, despite the short-term temptation caused by the succulent foods that surround us, a look toward the future and a good base of information should help us avoid certain unnecessary excesses.
