So in today’s blog, we want to take a closer look at how your foot health can be impacted by sugar consumption. Hopefully it will help you make some healthier decisions when your kids come back with pillowcases full of candy tonight!

Sugar and Your Feet

The most common way that sugar can affect your feet is through the onset of inflammation. Studies have shown that excess sugar can lead to an increase in the number of cytokines in your bloodstream, which in turn causes body tissue to become inflamed. This can be especially problematic for individuals with foot conditions that can be made worse with inflammation or compression, like those with joint arthritis, tendinitis or plantar fasciitis. If you have any of those conditions, be aware of your sugar intake.

Another potential way sugar can affect our feet is in the form or weight gain. Sugary foods are empty calories, so consuming a lot of these foods in addition to our normal meals is a recipe for weight gain. Added weight is felt most noticeably in our feet and legs, which are tasked with shouldering this extra stress as we move. Losing weight and maintaining a healthy diet are two great ways to take stress off your feet.

A final way in which sugar can affect our feet is through the onset of diabetes. Diabetes can develop if you have high blood sugar levels and unregulated blood sugar levels, and regular candy consumption can put you at risk for both of these conditions. Diabetes tends to inhibit healthy blood flow to our extremities and can lead to nerve damage, so your feet are often the area that is most impact by diabetes. Cuts on your feet may be slow to heal, or infections can result in the loss of your foot. Be smart about your sugar consumption if you want to curb your risk for developing diabetes.

A couple of candies on Halloween night isn’t going to kill you, but make sure you and your children are limiting your sweets intake over the next couple days. You don’t need all those empty calories, and they could cause problems for your feet.

Have a safe and wonderful Halloween!

The post How Does Sugar Affect Your Feet? appeared first on Lance Silverman, MD - Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon.

Sugar South of the Border

Mexico added a peso-per-liter tax on sugary drinks back in January of 2014, and two years later the country has seen a modest decrease in soda consumption. According to health officials, the tax has resulted in a 6 percent decline in sugary sweetened beverage (SSB) purchases after one year, and that trend continued as soda purchases are down 12 percent after two years.

Other findings from health officials include:

• Purchases of sugary beverages declined the most in the lowest socioeconomic group. They experienced a 9 percent drop in purchases after one year a 17 percent drop after two years.

• Consumption of non-taxed beverages (like water) increased 4 percent.

• In addition to a 10 percent sales tax on sugary sweetened beverages, Mexico also added an 8 percent sales tax on junk food, like candy, cookies and ice cream.

• Roughly 70 percent of adults in Mexico are overweight, and researchers believe even this modest decrease in sugar consumption has helped prevent diabetes rates from climbing at pre-tax rates.

“These results show that excise taxes on SSB’s are a promising way to lower purchased (and thus consumption) of unhealthy beverages, and people may be substituting with healthier beverages such as water,” said lead researcher Dr. Shu Wen Ng. “Many other countries are becoming convinced from the growing evidence of this policy strategy in the past few years and have also instituted SSB taxes (e.g., Chile, Barbados, France) lately; others are discussing it as an option.”

Dr. Ng added that you shouldn’t expect the US to follow suit. Sugar is subsidized in the US, meaning the government would be taxing partially subsidized products unless it first repealed the subsidy, and of course there would be immense lobbying form the sugar industry.

Sugar Across The Pond

Although they haven’t yet put the plan in place, researchers in Great Britain believe that by making small annual reductions in the sugar content of sugary sweetened beverages, they could greatly reduce overall obesity and diabetes rates.

Researchers suggest the a minor 8 percent reduction in sugar content in SSBs over the course of five years, leading to a 40 percent reduction in sugar after five years, could prevent more than a quarter of a million new cases of type 2 diabetes over the next two decades.

The Brits already tried similar measures with salt, and it had wondrous health effects, reducing stroke rates by 42 percent over an eight-year period.

The post Renewed Efforts To Cut Sugar Around The World appeared first on Lance Silverman, MD - Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon.

Think you know which items are packed with sugars? Below, we compare 10 items to a Krispy Kreme Donut. Do you think the pictured item or a Krispy Kreme donut has more sugar?

1. Grande Starbucks Latte

2. Subway 6’’ Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich

3. 8oz Glass of Tropicana 100% Orange Juice

4. Yoplait Original Yogurt

5. A Banana

6. One cup of 1% Milk

7. Odwalla Super Food Smoothie

8. McDonald’s Southwest Salad

9. ¾’s cup Kellogg’s Cracklin’ Oat Bran Cereal

10. 20oz Glaceau Vitamin Water

Dr. Silverman shares the answers

Plenty of foods that appear healthy are actually loaded with sugar. Again, this doesn’t mean you need to avoid some foods, or that they don’t provide other essential nutrients, but you need to be cognizant of what and how much you are putting in your body.

Take #5, a banana, for example. While it provides more nutritional value than a Krispy Kreme donut, many people would be surprised to learn that a banana actually has more grams of sugar than the donut. This doesn’t mean you should reach for a donut in lieu of a banana for breakfast, but you should consider opting for some veggies around lunchtime.

Now for the quiz results. Got your answer sheet ready? This quiz will be really easy to grade since every listed item actually has more grams of sugar than a Krispy Kreme Donut. A standard Krispy Kreme Donut has 10g of sugar. Here are the sugar contents of the above items.

1. Starbucks Latte 17g

2. Subway Sandwich 17g

3. Orange Juice 22g

4. Yogurt 27g

5. Banana 14g

6. Milk 13g

7. Odwalla 50g!

8. McDonald’s Salad 13g

9. Kellogg’s Cereal 15g

10. Vitamin Water 32g.

Related sources: MotherJones.com, RoDale.com, WebMD

The post Think You Know Sugar? Take the Sugar Quiz appeared first on Lance Silverman, MD - Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon.

For their study, researchers divided the mice into two groups. The control group received a healthy, whole grain-based diet, while the test group received a diet that was 25% sugar, and 75% whole grain-based. A diet that is 25% sugar is equivalent to drinking three sodas a day for humans.

Results

After observing the mice, researchers noted:

• Females in the test group were twice as likely to die compared to the control group.

• Males in the sugar group weren’t able to control territory in the enclosure as well as males in the control group.

• Females in the test group showed a steady decline in offspring compared to the whole grain-based diet group.

• Males in the sugar group produced ¼ less offspring than the males in the control group.

Researchers hope that the results of the study help people to understand the dangersous side effects of consuming a diet rich in sugar.

“We have shown that levels of sugar that people typically consume – and that are considered safe by regulatory agencies – impair the health of mice,” said lead author of the study Dr. James S. Ruff.

Dr. Silverman comments

This study parallels western society, and people need to open their eyes to the dangers of excessive sugar intake.

We’ve written about it time and time again on our blog. Sugar has been linked to obesity in children, an increased in diabetes development in adults, and adverse side effects in low-income neighborhoods.

People need to put down the Pepsi and pick up a glass of water.

Related source: MedPage Today

The post Excess Sugar Intake Leads to Early Death in Mice appeared first on Lance Silverman, MD - Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon.

According to their findings, consuming an additional 12 ounces of sugar-sweetened soda a day was associated with a 22% increased risk for developing diabetes, and artificially sweetened soft drinks were even more dangerous, as they were associated with a 52% increased risk.

While the new data is eye-opening, this is hardly the first study to link the negative effects sugar has on the body.  Researchers in this study said the main reason why soda intake was linked to diabetes was because sugar-sweetened beverages significantly impact a person’s weight and blood-glucose levels.

To conduct the study, researchers surveyed over 15,000 participants from eight European countries.  The participants were asked to answer a series of questions regarding their health and dietary choices.  Some of the questions included:

• Individual food/beverage consumption habits
• Food intake over the year leading up to the survey
• Types of beverages a person consumed (juice, water, soft drinks, etc.)
• Amount of each beverage consumed daily and weekly
• Other relevant factors, including smoking habits, alcohol consumption, education, physical activity and BMI.

In addition to their findings about diabetes, researchers concluded:

• Physically active males with a high waist circumference were more likely to be “high-level” consumers of soft drinks.
• Young, physically active females were more likely to drink juice or nectars.
• There was no association between the consumption of juice or nectars and an elevated risk of diabetes.
• Individuals who consumed one or more soft drinks a day saw a 58% increased risk of diabetes compared to the group who consumed the lowest amount of soda.
• Soft drink consumption remained significantly linked to diabetes both before and after adjusting for a person’s BMI.

Researchers said their findings were consistent with similar studies conducted in the United States.

“The observed association between sugar-sweetened soft drinks and diabetes in the present analysis is of similar magnitude as the association reported in a meta-analysis of eight prospective studies, which was based on 15,043 diabetes cases mostly from the U.S.A.,” researchers said in their conclusion.

Dr. Silverman comments

Many parents tell their children “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, but a renewed look at sugar intake might be even more beneficial than grabbing a Granny Smith every day.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, excess sugar can be extremely detrimental to a person’s health in the long run.

The problem for many people is that they don’t see any immediate consequences for consuming huge amounts of sugar.  If you try to eat pizza while it still hot, you’ll burn the room of your mouth, but if you drink three sodas a day, you won’t notice any direct consequences other than a possible influx of energy.

We’ve seen similar problems when it comes to smoking.  Teens and young adults don’t see the immediate consequences of their actions, but regulators have forced tobacco companies to issue product warnings on their labels.  This begs the question; if tobacco companies must print cancer warnings on their packs of cigarettes, shouldn’t soda companies be required to print a diabetes warning on their cans?

Related source:  MedPage Today

The post Diabetes Risk Increases Significantly When Soda is Consumed Daily appeared first on Lance Silverman, MD - Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon.

The study looked at sugar availability and medical data from 175 countries over the past ten years.  They found that high sugar levels can cause diabetes, irrespective of diabetes.  Obesity is also a leading cause of diabetes, but excess sugars can just as easily trigger the disease.

The study linked sugar consumption and diabetes in the same way that researchers linked smoking to an increased likelihood of cancer in the 1960’s.  The study took many factors into consideration, and they controlled for poverty, urbanization, aging, obesity and physical activity.

“You could not enact a real-world study that would be more conclusive than this one,” said Rob Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist who authored the study.

The study also satisfied the “Bradford Hill” criteria, which accounts for other factors including dosage, duration, directionality, and precedence.

In their findings, researchers concluded “each 150 kilocalories/person/day increase in total calorie availability related to a 0.1 percent rise in diabetes prevalence (not significant), whereas a 150 kilocalories/person/day rise in sugar availability (one 12-ounce can of soft drink) was associated with a 1.1 percent rise in diabetes prevalence.”  This means that for every 12 ounces of soda introduced per person into a country’s food supply, diabetes rates increase one percent.

“This study is proof enough that sugar is toxic,” said Lustig.  “Now it’s time to do something about it.”

But what will be done about it is still up in the air.  As we’ve discussed in previous posts, most companies are fueled by their bottom line, not by providing Americans with healthier options.  The Food and Drug Administration can call for clearer warnings, but companies may then switch to artificial sweeteners, which can be just as harmful to a person’s health.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the FDA to set safe limits for sugar intake, and requested that products that have an excess amount of sugar be labeled “unsafe”.  The CSPI and other public interest groups want people to understand that while overeating can lead to obesity, overeating sugars can greatly increase a person’s likelihood of developing diabetes.

Dr. Silverman comments

The findings of this study are earth-shattering.

It is important to understand the history of the sugar industry.  As it has grown in power over the last several 100 years, the sugar industry has taken a foothold within our political system.  As the world changed in the 50’s and 60’s, the sugar industry began to realize a potential threat.  That threat was science.

Science could kill the sugar industry because it could prove that sugar was bad for you.  At that point, just like the tobacco companies, the industry began to support scientific research designed to address problems cause by its products.

Regardless of history, this new study shows the correlation between sugar and the growth of the scourge of Western stabilization, diabetes.

I expect the sugar ‘mafia’, and by that I mean sugar producers, to do the same thing that the tobacco companies did for several years.  They will deny, confuse, and obscure the truth. There is so much money at risk in this situation, and anyone who believes otherwise is foolish.  Money will be pouring in to protect their products.  Watch for commercials on TV that show sugar as a natural substance. I expect that we’ll see commercials with tag lines like “How can something natural be bad for you?”

It’s even more depressing when you consider how much dependency our government has on the taxation proceeds from sugar throughout all levels of our economy.  Hopefully, the public will see the absolute tsunami of pressure that will be exerted back upon those who try to quell the amount of sugar being fed to the public.

And here is where it gets really bad.  Sugar, just like tobacco, is an addictive substance.  If levels are dropped within soda, people will just drink more soda.  Don’t expect the companies that grow sugar, the companies that put sugar in their products, the government that regulates these companies, or the people who are eating the products made by these companies to ever do something against their self-interest.

To summarize, sugar is bad for you; try as hard as you can to avoid it.

Related source:  NY Times

The post The Availability of Sugar and the Impact on Diabetes Rates appeared first on Lance Silverman, MD - Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon.

The study asked both children and adults to limit their sugar intake, and they observed a small but significant reduction in body fat for adults who adhered to the guidelines.  Researchers said the effects were less noticeable in children, but they believe that was due in large part to fewer children complying with the study guidelines.

Large amounts of sugar consumption can lead to adverse health effects, like weight gain and type 2 diabetes.  Many children and adults overindulge in sugars through the consumption of soda and other soft drinks.

“It’s clear that sugar does have adverse effects, particularly in liquid form as sugar-sweetened drinks,” said Dr. Walter Willett, who commented on the research.  “This study addresses a piece of the picture, the effect on weight gain.  There is also a strong body of evidence showing that sugar-sweetened beverages are related to type 2 diabetes.”

Reducing sugar intake is a global issue, as companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi continue to expand into new markets.  Willett said their availability and consumption in low-income areas is particularly concerning.

“Sugar-sweetened beverages are such a big part of the picture,” Willett said. “The average consumption among low-income groups in the US is about three servings a day; it’s huge. And this is a global issue, with Coke and Pepsi pushing very hard, and the implications are horrendous.”

Researchers made it clear that some sugar consumption is necessary for normal bodily functions.  Current sugar intake in the US and UK makes up roughly 15% of total energy, but the World Health Organization says limiting the intake to 10% “could be viewed as a realistic and practical goal.”  Even further, the American Heart Association believes limiting sugar intake to 5% of total energy would be a more consistent goal for optimal health.

Refined Carbs Also Bad

The study also examined the effects carbohydrates had on the body in place of dietary sugars.  Researchers found that highly processed carbohydrates were just as detrimental to a person’s health as sugar, and exchanging one for the other did not impact weight loss.

“Sugar is not the only issue; there is the bigger problem of carbohydrate quality,” said Willett. “Large amounts of refined carbohydrates are also a problem.”

Researchers believe the average consumer is more aware of the harmful effects excess sugar intake can have on the body, but they don’t know that refined carbohydrates act in a similar manner.

Just like any nutrient, there are certain types than are worse than the others.  Willett suggests that we’ve made strides in understanding the difference between “good” and “bad” fats, and he hopes educational programs can help people better understand what types of carbohydrates they are putting into their body.

“This is analogous to what we see for fats in that the type of fat you consume is really important. A similar picture is emerging for carbohydrates; quality turns out to be really important.”

Willett suggests that educational programs should begin in elementary schools, and assistance programs should be considered in low-income areas.

Dr. Silverman comments

Once again we are presented with evidence that sugar is bad for you and limiting your intake is beneficial for your health.

The most interesting finding in the study is that refined carbohydrates are as detrimental to one’s health as sugar.  Things like bread, pasta, and crackers in excess are just as harmful as overindulging in sugars.

When attempting to limit sugar intake, one should also consider watching the amount of refined carbohydrates they consume.

The post Sugars, Refined Carbs Have Harmful Effects appeared first on Lance Silverman, MD - Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon.