Sugar, or Сахар as it is spoken in Russia from where I am writing this article, if consumed in excessive quantities above the recommended health norm can invite many health problems. In Russia and Ukraine they call me the “ Caxap Diplomat” because I broker some serious metric tonnage of sugar sales between supermarkets in Russia , Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia and wholesale supplier farms around the globe that grow either sweet sugar beets or sugar cane and process them into refined white sugar. Did you know that sugar is 4 times more addictive than cocaine? Both cocaine and sugar release almost the same set of chemicals in the body and brain including dopamine. Yes, you and I have sugar withdrawal all the time and we simply don’t recognize it as such. Sugar, at the moment for Americans is very inexpensive to purchase in all its forms, so satisfying our intense addiction does not resonate as a serious health problem…not yet. How many times do you have a craving for something sweet, so you rush to the kitchen to find any food, sugary drink, or snack item that will satisfy the sugar withdrawal? Sugar is hazardous for you and I might as well be a drug dealer like the former Columbian cocaine cartel head, Pablo Escobar. The parallels are striking: I sell a highly addictive developing world product that is derived from a highly protected plant grown in the tropics and sometimes in war zones (by the way, should we have a Kimberley Process as they do for African diamonds in order to verify your local Starbucks or MacDonald’s is serving conflict-free sugar?), or under the control of local agro-mafias; and this multi-purpose plant is processed preferably into refined white crystals by– “indentured laborers”( field laborers who are somehow in debt to the land owner and they and their children have to work off their debts –India) or severely underpaid labor (Brazil, Africa , China and Thailand) —and sold by the kilo or in metric tones to dubious middle men on satellite phones in Miami, London, Istanbul, Odessa and couriers who will get the product anyhow legally or illegally into the European Union , Russia and North America. Compounding this paradigm, the current spat of severe weather that is killing crops will increase the global price of sugar per kilo—I might very well become a millionaire just like Mr. Escobar, but legally from sugar. However, I do have an unavoidable responsibility to supplement my profitable sugar trade with timely public health messages about the harmful effects of sugar.

I am an international food snob and food commodity broker, I do not sit behind a desk and trade commodity futures or stocks—I actually sell a physical product; fresh vegetables, fish, chicken and all types of meats including “Halal” or халяль certified meats. Although, my favorite food commodity is sugar. To sell sugar is not an evil profession as selling cigarettes and being obligated by federal law to place a health warning label on my client’s product. Considerably, a comparison can be drawn as to the morality of a food commodity broker such as me and the tobacco supplier. I know that what I am selling is a harmful, addictive product. However, I do believe that educating consumers of one particular food commodity by-product –and that is what white refined sugar is, a by-product—processed from sugar beets or sugar cane. Discussing sugar and sugar by-products is essential to understanding the dangers of how prolonged and misguided sugar consumption can ruin a person’s overall wellbeing.

Sugar is the most broadly segmented substance that has more harmful effects than benefits when ingested above the recommended USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) diet charts. For example the average American woman should consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day, a man–no more than 9 teaspoons. However, American adults both male and female consume about 22 teaspoons of additive sugar—every day! Unfortunately, The USDA normative guidelines are far below the actual American sugar consumption levels of what is called “additive sugar” –the sugar not naturally present in a food product but artificially added by the food manufacturer for magnifying taste or extending product shelf-life. The USDA completed a research project recently that reveled the realistic current consumption of additive sugars amongst Americans has risen 19% more than they had once consumed in 1970. The largest population segment that experienced the widest increase in additive sugar consumption was teenagers. Today, American teens consume an equivalent of 34 teaspoons of additive sugars mostly from; flavored sodas, juices, candy, and breakfast cereals. One Russian mother I know described her recent visit to Manhattan to visit relatives, and screamed with disgust as her Mother-in-law poured milk over a “bowl of candy” as she visually described it, for her daughter. What she was describing is a very common breakfast cereal that I am even guilty of buying and eating it straight out of the box without milk, but drinking beer and munching on this cereal—because quite frankly the popular American cereal IS just like candy, in round , rain bow colored pieces. But I won’t name the brand of cereal for fear of a law suit, but this sugar-evil cereal box proclaimed “5% more marshmallows!”. Most working adults can attribute their excess sugar intake to the cups of sugar or soda they drink at their jobs, whereas for children it begins with the very first meal of the day knowingly or unknowingly given to them by their time deficient parents—sugary cereals and toaster prepared pastries. What happened to English muffins, scrambled eggs and bacon? Are there any American parents who can rise 30 minutes earlier to cook real breakfast? But the Sugar I help sell makes it easier for you to slowly poison yourself and your children. It’s not your fault completely.

Obesity: The astronomical rise of particularly childhood obesity is a testament to how far American health standards have dropped in regards to early childhood diet planning and the intake of additive sugars. Did you know that sugar in your body is processed 3 times faster into fat in your blood more so than any other substance? Excess sugar can cause a sharp increase in bad cholesterol known as LDL—low density-lipoprotein which further contributes to the build up of plaque in the arteries a precursor of artery blockage and heart attacks. HDL-high density lipoprotein contributes to the prevention of plaque build up that in part is produced by our bodies processing additive sugars present in our blood into fatty deposits along the artery walls.

In my line of work, I sell all types of sugar by-products that are used in food and drink processing; some food companies need raw sugar, others coarse sugar, brown sugar, refined sugar, first-press sugar cane juice, and all of these forms are used to preserve the shelf life and enhance the flavor of foods and drinks. Even the brewing of some beers and alcoholic spirits require the addition of sugar and sugar by-products. You can’t escape sugar additives in your average American supermarket unless, you are buying your goods from a country side farmer’s market—where the person selling you the food item is the exact person who made, grew or slaughtered the food product. It has been highly argued among many outstanding medical scholars that Attention Deficit Disorder (known as ADD)or hyperactivity in pre-school and elementary children is not a genetic predisposition but rather a direct result of the child’s or pre-teen adult’s daily additive sugar consumption; mainly flavored sodas and breakfast cereals. There is actually a global internet group called “Mothers Against Junk Food” –you can Google this exact name sequence and find the website to this parent activist group against excessive sugar in breakfast foods, snacks and aggressive marketing towards children. The many non-medical established anti-sugar groups such as Mothers Against Junk Food openly support the obesity studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine and other professional medical journals –that disclose their independent research about the correlations of excessive early childhood sugar intake leading to obesity and other critical health problems such as early childhood diabetes. Sugar dramatically alters the way natural insulin is produced in children and young adults, and most American parents don’t understand this fact.

It is no lie that America has the highest rates of child obesity and adult obesity in the world. Most of the child obesity is contributed to many socio-economic factors; however within this paradigm sugar intake plays a pivotal role in the overall weight progression of children who regularly drink sugary flavored drinks, eat sugary low-nutritional value breakfast cereals and snacks that are laced once again with sugar based conservatives. As a dealer of what I consider a dangerous food substance, and as a sugar salesman, if there is one product that I would ban from all children’s diet before they turn 18 –it would be sugar and perhaps sugary sodas. This is the “Sugar Diplomat” warning you to watch your sugar consumption, good luck and God bless.