'Added Sugar' May Add to Weight Gain in U.S.
Mar-26-2011

Researchers taking nutritional snapshots of the population around a major metropolitan area for more than 30 years say they've noticed something interesting: as consumption of added sugars has increased, so too, have body weights.
Researchers parsing the myriad reasons for America's collective growing girth have looked at the contributions of total calories and fat, experts say, but less is known about what role added sugars might play.
Added sugars are sugars in foods that aren't naturally occurring. They're mixed in as sugar or syrups during processing or preparation.
The sugar in fruit, fructose, for example, wouldn't count as an added sugar. But the high-fructose corn syrup that's added to some kinds of fruit cocktail would fall into that category. So would sugars added to sweeten yogurt, soft drinks, and processed snacks and desserts like cookies, cakes, and pies.
"We're looking at trends," says study researcher Lyn M. Steffen, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. "We looked at them in women and men, and in both men and women, added sugar intake increased since 1980."

Read the rest of the article right here: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20110324/added-sugar-may-add-to-weight-gain-in-us

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