Hey Sweetie…

We have all hear it. We all know that added sugars and syrups fuel obesity, trigger excess insulin secretion and boost inflammation, elevate triglycerides and cause cardio woes.

But as our ole friends Drs. Oz and Roizen explain, they can also increase our risk for mental health.

Roizen and Oz drew our attention to a new study in Scientific Reports, which looked at information collected from 1985 to 2013 on more than 10,000 participants.

The researchers found that over a five-year period, “men with the highest sugar intake from foods and beverages — more than 2.3 ounces (70 grams) daily — had a 23 percent increase in the risk of common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, no matter how well or how poorly they took care of themselves or what their sociodemographic characteristics were.”

Other lab studies have shown that sugar can trigger addictive behavior and cognitive decline.

I say…let’s blame it on the rats! If they had fared better, perhaps we humans would not have to be so paranoid about sugar. But yikes, it goes on: one study showed that it fueled food addiction; another found that rats preferred sugar-water to cocaine. Yet another lab study found that a sugar-boosted diet could make rats forget how to get through a maze.

I know this is horrible news to most of us. But I think we had better get used to it. Everything I read only suggests the research will get tougher on the sugar issue. That’s not fun…but neither are depression and anxiety.

Tim Berry