Underbelly star Damon Gameau seeks truth behind sugar Is sugar the new silent killer? HE played a gangland criminal in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities but this Aussie star's latest gig is probably going to be his most challenging yet. Australian actor Damon Gameau is on a 'Super Size Me' inspired adventure of consuming 40 teaspoons of sugar per day for 60 days. He is up to Day 19 (on August 19). What should we be consuming a day? A maximum of just nine teaspoons. Or six if you're a female. So 40 teaspoons, at 4.2 grams a teaspoon, is a lot of sugar but only marginally above the average daily amount consumed by teenagers worldwide. Gameau's on a mission. He wants to find out if sugar is society's silent killer. He believes the average person has no idea how much sugar they're really consuming and he wants to find out what this substance is really doing to our bodies. "The time has come for (people) to really know what is going on," Gameau says. And he's not talking about a few extra unwanted kilos. He says the aim of his human lab rat experiment (and subsequent film) won't be to consume vast amounts of perceived 'junk' food. Rather, he will follow an average Australian diet and through that highlight the hidden sugars that are found in many 'healthy' marketed products. He also wants to see if there is a wider 'sugar conspiracy' at play led by the food industry. After eating very little sugar for two years, the shocking reality of how much sugar we really consume became obvious to Gameau on Day 1. Actor and filmmaker Damon Gameau. Picture File Source: News Limited Day 1 - Breakfast One bowl of Just Right: (2.5 servings because one serving is not much more than a shot glass): One serving has 12g (three teaspoons of sugar), so 2.5 serves got me to roughly seven teaspoons. Two scoops of strawberry fat-free yoghurt: This was 26g of sugar per serve but I removed roughly 8g for lactose which left 18g or 4 teaspoons of sugar. A 200ml glass of apple juice: Equals 22g per 100ml so when doubled (still a small glass) this came to 44 grams which equalled 11 teaspoons. To my surprise, I had eaten 22 teaspoons while still at the breakfast table. The AHA recommends nine for the whole day. This was going to be easy," he wrote on his blog. After his sugar-laden brain dreamed that night that he was a wobbly overweight pear, Day 2 again started off well. By 10.30am, Gameau had managed to consume 29 teaspoons of sugar before he had even left the breakfast table. Fast forward 14 days and he knows how to get a sugar hit, fast. He's discovered that fat-free yoghurts, fruit juices, mineral waters and 'healthy' snack bars are some of the worst offenders. He's also discovering the world of clever (or is that "misleading"?) marketing. I'm learning that the wrappers with bees, honey, flowers, words like 'nature' or 'natural' or any shade of green are the sneaky buggers. They profess to be healthy. Henceforth these shall be known as the Sugar Assassins. And tubs of yoghurt are their queen," he blogged on Day 8. Gameau says more research needs to be done on the impact of sugar on our mental health. While the actor won't reveal exactly how the sugar experiment has affected his body - you'll have to watch the film he is making as part of the project to find out - he says doctors have already noticed huge changes in him in a very short period of time. But he says the change that has surprised him the most is the impact the diet has had on his moods and behaviour. The actor says he now often feels "flat, tired, grumpy, delirious, vague, edgy and a bit flatulent if you must know." So he wants to look at this more closely: What is sugar doing to our mental health? I suspect a massive percentage of the population has never experienced what type of person they are without sugar as they have no idea how much they are actually consuming. I can categorically state that I'm a happier, more buoyant and an all round better and kinder person when not on sugar," he says. There are now links between excess carbohydrate consumption and cardiovascular disease. According to the Australian Heart Foundation, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in Australia, with 45,600 deaths attributed to CVD in Australia in 2011. Cardiovascular disease kills in Australia every 12 minutes. And to this day, medical experts and health bodies have generally agreed that diets high in salt and saturated fats are behind CVD. Sugar isn't good for you either, but it's not a killer. Or is it? The Australian Heart Foundation believes that the focus needs to remain on sodium and saturated fat. But, Dr Naras Lapsys, a dietitian and founder of The Body Doctor, isn't so sure. One of the big things - and this has only come out recently - is we're now starting to discover that higher intakes of refined carbohydrates and sugars have been leading to cardiovascular health problems and we didn't realise that was the case. Dr Lapsys says there are now links between excess carbohydrate consumption and cardiovascular disease but that the message has yet to filter its way down from medical research centres to the media, health organisations and the general public. So what's the solution? To stop over-consuming sugar. Not so easy, says Gameau. He believes his experiment and film will show that sugar is everywhere and hidden in many common foods. He also wants to show that we are hardwired to love sugar and that it's addictive. He won't need to convince The Body Doctor. Gameau wants to highlight the hidden sugars that are found in many "healthy" marketed products. Picture: File Source: News Limited I think that human beings are hardwired to like sugar. Although, some more than others," Dr Lapsys says. The dietitian says the link between sugar, carbohydrates and serotonin - a 'feel good hormone' that can make people feel positive and balanced - is well known "so there is no reason to think that some people are not going to have that loop hardwired a little more than others." We also know that sugar is the preferred fuel of the body (and) we've got studies to show that humans don't have a very good off switch for carbohydrates and for sugar. So if there is anything that we could over consume it's sugar ... and if your food chain is pumping you full of this stuff, then it's going to be very hard to know when enough is enough. The dietitian also believes it's only a matter of time before it becomes officially accepted that sugar and some carbohydrates are addictive. He says he already sees on a day-to-day basis patients that are basically sugar addicts. There's interesting science to back this up because they are some preliminary studies showing that in some people the neurological pathways that light up when they desire and consume sugar are no different from the set of pathways that light up with some drugs and so some real parallels are starting to show themselves. It's early evidence but I would suggest that there is a significant amount of potential addiction. For Gameau, the evil reality of sugar and its potential harmful impact has become a reality. After just eight days, Gameau woke up to twitching limbs. Had he already become addicted to the crystals? The term 'kicking the habit' comes from heroin withdrawals when a twitching occurs as the drug releases its grip. I'm not comparing the two yet, but ... He says his film will also investigation whether food companies are deliberately adding sugar to products, knowing that we are hardwired to love it? That morning though he merely wolfed down a bowl of 'healthy' cereal, some low fat yoghurt and with these extra 11 teaspoons of sugar in his body, the twitching was gone. Gameau believes Australians have no idea how much sugar they're really consuming. So if we're hardwired to love sugar and are at risk of becoming addicted to it, how can we limit our intake to a healthy nine (or six) teaspoons a day? Gameau says it's hard because sugar is so prevalent. He says if we took out every item in a supermarket that has sugar in it, the aisles would be virtually empty, with only 10 per cent of a supermarket's stock left on the shelves. But not all sugars are bad and not all products with sugar in them should be avoided. Most people know they need to avoid obvious 'evils' like soft drinks, cakes, frozen milks products and chocolate. But what else can they do? Dr Lapsys says the key is to become carb savvy and a simple way to do this is to eat less processed carbs and to get your carbohydrates from real food sources. But he says people shouldn't choose products based on sugar levels alone. The Heart Foundation agrees. " (If you did that), you'd choose a diet soft drink over skim milk but you'd miss out on much needed calcium as well as protein, vitamins D and A," the organisation states on its website. Raisin toast: 4 teaspoons per slice A 250ml popular liquid breakfast drink: 4 teaspoons A 250ml bottle of multi-vitamin juice: 6 teaspoons Iced tea: 8 teaspoons Powerade: 8 teaspoons of sugar 400ml of apple juice: 10 teaspoons A serve of low fat yoghurt: 11 teaspoons A low-fat strawberry standard size smoothie: 18 teaspoons Follow Damon Gameau's 40-teaspoons-a-day sugar experiment at Gameauland.com