Secondary sugar kills | Laurent Adamowicz | TEDxYouth@BeaconStreet

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Secondary sugar kills? Wait, secondary sugar is the one that’s hidden and added to foods you wouldn’t suspect, so kids and parents get addicted. A horrendous revelation here is that baby formula contains added sugar. Lots of it! And less lactose than breast milk. And no nutrition label requirement? You must be kidding, right?

Laurent is the Founder and Chairman of EChO – Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to improve overall public health of children. Laurent is also a member of the Nutrition Round Table at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and President of Bon'App, a social enterprise that improves access to, and quality of, nutrition education.
Born and raised in Paris, France, Laurent holds an MBA from the Wharton School, a Master of Arts in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University, and he is a Senior Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.

Secondary sugar kills?

No, wait.

Secondary smoking kills.

It causes lung cancer.

I know that, because in 1986,
when the US Surgeon General told us,

what did we do?

We waged massive campaigns.

We started labeling packages
saying, "It kills."

We also started public campaigns,
so the kids would know.

And what happened
is one day, they would tell you,

"Mom, if you don't stop smoking,
you're going to die."

Well, that's pretty dramatic.

This is a public health emergency.

And we have one today.

It's all about secondary sugar,
and let me explain how it kills.

You all know primary sugar, right?

Primary sugar: what I call that is
the one in your fruits, your vegetables,

the legumes, the nuts, the milk;

it's the lactose,
this is all good for you.

The body knows
how to process that very well

with all the protein, the fiber,
and the vitamins that come with it.

What I call secondary sugar
- and I coined this term -

is the sugar that is hidden
and added to processed foods.

That's the one that's bad.

First of all, it's hidden.

Let's look at this for a second.

It's hidden, because it's not
where you expect it,

in your beverages and your sweets.

It's hidden, because half of what we eat
comes from those savory foods.

Savory? Yes!

It's in your soup.

Three teaspoons of sugar in that soup.

It's in your crackers.

There's six teaspoons.

You may say,
"But, I only eat a few of those."

Yes, a serving size is five crackers.

Do you know anybody
who eats five crackers?

(Laughter)

Five chips?

I don't. Right?

They eat the whole sleeve.
That's teaspoons of sugar.

And it's everywhere.

When I say everywhere,

I mean in your bread,
in your pizza, in your burgers.

it's in your salad dressing,

even in America's favorite hot sauce.

You are reading these numbers correctly:

there are 24 teaspoons
of sugar in that bottle.

Yes. The regular bottle.

You may say, "Oh, but hold on.
I eat only a little."

Yes, but it adds up.

And wait, this is not the worst.

After working 20 years in the industry,

I thought I had seen the best
and the ugliest of the industry.

No. A few weeks ago,
I found out even worse.

And that's what I want to share
with you today.

Now, let's put baby formula
in perspective here.

The best milk for the baby is obviously
the mother's milk, breast milk.

It does have sugar.

Primary sugar in it.

Seven percent of it is lactose,
and that's good!

Can't be better for the baby.

But, in many communities,
in low-income communities,

they use this -- 50%
of the mothers don't breastfeed.

And, what's in this?

Less lactose and a lot of sugar.

When I say a lot of sugar, I mean
61 teaspoons of sugar is like this.

That's crazy. It's shocking.

Now, it goes on as an addiction.

And now a three-year old toddler
will get a little beverage like this.

Let me show the size of this bottle.

It has six teaspoons of sugar,
just that little thing.

The marketing is deceiving;
because mothers will think,

"Oh, my kid will grow like a giraffe!"

No, they don't! They grow like a hippo!

(Laughter)

What do we do next?

We become young adults,
and now we're tricked by the diets.

Think about it for a second.

You think about fat-free, right?

No, it doesn't.

Again, from knowing
in the industry, how it works,

when we remove the fat
from a product, it's tasteless,

so what do you do?

You add sugar,
so that your favorite salad dressing,

that may already have sugar
and you don't know why,

becomes three times as much sugar.

And, you'll try gluten-free,

Well, no.

I mean, if it's only
because it's a fad, think again.

Gluten-free will often have 30 to 40%
more sugar than your regular product.

So, you'll think, "Organic is good
for my baby! That's healthy!"

No, it isn't.

The organic baby formula
is the worst offender.

That's the one that has
61 teaspoons of sugar.

That's almost half a pound.

That's what I'm talking about.

In that little box,
there's this much sugar.

So, what do we do about it?

I mean, am I telling you
no sugar for anybody?

No.

I would never say to kids,
"Stay away from sugar."

I'm from Paris. I know
when I need my sugar kick.

And, this is the eclair, right there.

The chocolate eclair
is what I get for my sugar,

because I drink my coffee black.

So, that's my sugar.

But the one on the right
has just too much sugar.

They look the same.

You look at these two little things,
and you say, "Oh. It's about the same."

Yes; 260 calories each.

But the difference is
one is loaded with sugar.

And those nine teaspoons of sugar
are like a soda.

They create a sugar spike on your liver.

Here's what I mean. Look what happens.

The excess sugar
gets transformed into glycogen.

The glycogen is fat storage for later.

So, the insulin does not bring it
to the muscles;

it says to the body,
"I'll come back for that."

Except if you do this
two or three times a day,

then it stays in your belly.

And you can't get rid of it.

We know there's a direct correlation now
between how much secondary sugar you take

and the higher incidence of heart disease,
type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

So, how are we going to
stop this addiction?

And I'm talking about an addiction here.

Let me show you.

This is a brain scan
you see on the image

of a normal individual.

The red dots represent the dopamine.

That's the reward.

That's the "Ahhh!" when I bite the eclair.

And I know I'm not going to have
two or three of those.

But what happens
with an addiction is this.

Do you see the difference
on this brain scan of a cocaine addict?

No red dots. No dopamine.

The reward system is shut down.

So I need more. More. More.

And this is the brain scan
of an obese person.

I call this a sugar addiction.

Same phenomenon. I'm craving it.

Craving it to the point of 22 teaspoons,

30 teaspoons per day for teens.

How are we going to resolve this?

How are we going to solve the crisis
of childhood obesity?

With a warning system.

That's what I'm suggesting.

We did it for tobacco,

why can't we do it here
for all our foods

and have a warning
on the front of the package

in addition to all that great information
that nobody reads, right?

Seriously. A number of teaspoons.

And, the entire package,
not for a ridiculous serving size.

Now, if the product
has no secondary sugar in it,

no added sugar whatsoever,

we should tell it
and grant it a green label.

Kids will know the difference,

so that when time comes
for the burger and the fries,

they will tell their mom and dad,

"Dad, are you sure you want to get

that 57-teaspoons-of-sugar bottle
for your fries?

I want a zero for mine!"

That's what we can do. Together.
We can eradicate childhood obesity.

We, the people, need
to take this to the [Capitol] Hill.

Thank you.

(Applause)