After publishing a blog post in November with several colleagues about how PepsiCo is doing its part to help people lead well-balanced lives and combat diabetes, I received a comment from a reader.
The question was about whether the sugar content found in many soda and fruit drinks is a major contributor to the increased number of diabetes cases. This is a good question.
This is a topic I am personally very passionate about. I hope that sharing just a little about my background will help you understand how my views on how the increases in obesity and type 2 diabetes have been influenced. I was a practicing behavioral medicine professional and a diabetes educator at the Joslin Clinic/Joslin Diabetes Center for 30 years. Working with patients and clinical research colleagues at Joslin and Harvard made it clear that there are many factors that influence the development of type 2 diabetes. When people continue to consume more calories (not sugar specific) than they need, their energy balance is off and they gain weight and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes often increases.
In other words, it is not specifically the consumption of sugar, and the calories from sugar, that are a risk factor. The factor is rather too many calories total. For more information about risk factors, see the National Diabetes Education Program.
An Institute of Medicine report A Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients) (2002) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), states: “There is no clear and consistent association between increased intake of added sugars and BMI.”
The other key element of energy balance is physical activity. Our lifestyles have evolved to the point that many of us are less active than we were just a generation ago. In December 2010, some well-noted diabetes and exercise professionals from top universities, academic medical centers and the CDC concluded, in a joint position statement by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Diabetes Association: “Exercise plays a major role in the prevention and control of insulin resistance, prediabetes, gestational diabetes mellitus, type II diabetes, and diabetes related health complications.” The entire position statement is online at http://care.diabetesjournals.org
The obesity and diabetes challenges of today require a multi-partner approach where individuals, governments, businesses and leaders from all walks of life embrace the importance of being positive role models and working together so we can ensure that better lifestyle choices are available and made more frequently. During the last few years we are seeing more examples of government, corporations, medical, church, community and education leaders working together to ensure that more nutrient enhanced and reduced calorie and salt products are available. People are also being educated to choose these calorie and salt reduced products more frequently. Some newer science on physical activity also shows that programs that make exercise fun significantly increase physical activity outside of these organized programs.
I hope this helps explain my perspectives on this multi-faceted issue, and thanks again to our readers. Your questions and comments make this a better blog.
