For the first time in a century, American life expectancy has declined for a third consecutive year in a row. The evidence is clear: America has an addiction problem — not just to opioids and methamphetamine, but also to sugar.
The Journal of the American Medical Association found that amphetamine-caused hospitalizations more than doubled in the past decade, a startling spike that’s been largely overshadowed by the opioid crisis that’s ravaging the country. Drug overdoses altogether in 2017 killed over 70,000 Americans. For reference, the entirety of the Korean War killed 54,246 Americans. The Vietnam War killed 58,209.
But the top two leading causes of death were heart disease and cancer, factors exacerbated by an American addiction to sugar. The World Health Organization recommends an average daily sugar consumption of less than 13 teaspoons, but it recommends ideally less than 6.5. The American Heart Association recommends less than six.
The average American consumes more than 126 grams daily, or 30 teaspoons. The research on the damage this is causing is ongoing. Studies have linked excessive sugar consumption to everything from type 2 diabetes and obesity to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. It has directly inflated the number of annual deaths, to say nothing of healthcare costs. The country’s obesity rate is steadily climbing to nearly 40 percent, with seven states with 35 percent of the population now obese.
The seventh highest cause of death, diabetes, has a direct relationship to America’s sugar addiction. People who drink sugary beverages daily have a 26 percent higher risk of type 2 diabetes than those who don’t.
Separate but not unrelated is the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that an increasing suicide rate has contributed to lower life expectancy.
Washington can put bandages on the bleeding, encouraging and enabling the proliferation of naloxone. That’s good, and it will save people from opioid overdoses, but America’s mortality problem will require cultural shifts and community action.
The root causes have to be addressed, fast and fundamentally. It’s a matter of life and death.
