SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
She Took On Colombia's Soda Industry. Then She Was Silenced.
It began with menacing phone calls, strange malfunctions of the office computers, and men in parked cars photographing the entrance to the small consumer advocacy group's offices. Then at dusk one day last December, Dr. Esperanza Cerón, the head of the organization, said she noticed two strange men on motorcycles trailing her Chevy sedan as she headed home from work. She tried to lose them in Bogotá's rush-hour traffic, but they edged up to her car and pounded on the windows. "If you don't keep your mouth shut," one man shouted, she recalled in a recent interview, "you know what the consequences will be."
The episode, which Dr. Cerón reported to federal investigators, was reminiscent of the intimidation often used against those who challenged the drug cartels that once dominated Colombia. But the narcotics trade was not the target of Dr. Cerón and her colleagues. Their work had upset a different multibillion-dollar industry: the makers of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages.
Their organization, Educar Consumidores, was the most visible proponent of a proposed 20 percent tax on sugary drinks that was heading for a vote that month in Colombia's Legislature. The group had raised money, rallied allies to the cause and produced a provocative television ad that warned consumers how sugar-laden beverages can lead to obesity and diet-related illnesses like diabetes. The backlash was fierce. A Colombian government agency, responding to a complaint by the nation's leading soda company that called the ad misleading, ordered it off the air. Then the agency went further: It prohibited Dr. Cerón and her colleagues from publicly discussing the health risks of sugar, under penalty of a $250,000 fine.
Related: Scientists Find Shorter Telomeres in Immune Cells of Soda Drinkers
US Army says Only 30% of Americans Qualified to Join
Obesity Surges to 13.6% in Ghana
America Gets Even Fatter From 2015-2016
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 17 2017, @04:12PM (25 children)
I quit soda pop years ago. Restaurants charging over $1, and even pushing past $2 for a drink helped push me away.
Wish I'd known in high school that excessive sugar also causes acne. Used to pay no attention to ingredients and would eat those sorts that were upwards of 99% sugar: fruit chews, hard candies, toffees and caramels, syrups. Now I check and if the food is more than 1/3 sugar, I avoid it. Also try to avoid more than 1/4 sugar. I tried dried fruit, but that can be more than 50% sugar. So called healthy granola bars can be terrible too, worse than an honest candy bar.
I'm not too sure about carbs either. I understand that they very quickly convert into sugar once in your digestion, making them about as bad as just eating sugar. Weight Watchers assigns points to foods, and urges members to keep points down to control their weight. One thing that stands out is that they assign a lot of points to bread. One blueberry muffin from the bakery is more points than most full meals. Bakeries are coy about the ingredients, but a muffin is a double whammy. It's bread with lots of sugar. The glazed donut is another bad food.
Eat apples and other fruits. It seems that sugar is a lot better if it's embedded in fiber. Make your digestion work a little to liberate the sugar.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @04:18PM (16 children)
I quit soda pop years ago. Restaurants charging over $1, and even pushing past $2 for a drink helped push me away.
Same here. I used to be able to eat and drink whatever I wanted when I was young, but in my late 20s it caught up with me and I had a weight problem. The biggest change I made was not drinking any more soda, and after making that change it was easy staying at my normal weight (eating some other healthier things helped too, but the sheer number of calories I was getting from soda was probably the biggest factor).
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday November 17 2017, @04:50PM (15 children)
Ah, the late 20's bulge. I remember I was about 28 when I started noticing my gut was growing exponentially from all the drinking. It really hit me after my grandmother's poignant comment to me one day: "You better get rid of that gut! Girls don't want to look down and see a big fat gut, they want to see something else..." Uh, thanks grandma.
I didn't start right away but I knew I had to stop drinking and eat more healthy foods (it was all junk all the time). Once I hit 30 I realized I was going from overweight to obese which I knew I had to stop. I started to hate taking pictures because my fat face and body were embarrassing. Then a few brutally honest friends started calling me fat and that was it. I joined a boxing gym and lost 20 lbs over 8 months while gaining muscle. Then the gym went under and I never went anywhere else. I managed to keep my weight down through my early and mid 30's but never seemed to go below 210 lbs. Then I started cutting out sugar. Now I'm around 195 lbs and looking to add an exercise routine once I figure out how to get my chaotic depression and anxiety riddled life together.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @05:59PM (9 children)
Regular exercise really helps with the depression and anxiety. Personally, I recommend getting a bike and finding some nice (and safe) trails to ride on. Gyms bore the hell out of me (and many seem to be filled with guys who look like criminals) and I like to feel like I'm accomplishing something or getting somewhere, even if it's just to see nature.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday November 17 2017, @06:42PM (8 children)
Exercise helps with depression, health, etc. But don't expect it to help you lose weigh, as it also increases appetite (just not immediately after the exercise). Only diet can cause you to lose weight...and possibly having the right gut bacteria, though I think that's still being debated, and, of course, there's no agreement on what the right bacteria are or how to get them, but it will probably come down to diet.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @07:02PM
I completely disagree. The total lack of obese people in Manhattan, plus all the other places around the developed world where people walk a lot, is proof enough that exercise helps maintain weight. More exercise = higher metabolism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @08:29PM
Just because your hungry doesn't mean you have to eat. That's what fasting is all about. Getting the right bacteria is a matter of providing them with the right environment and understanding that that environment is meant to ebb and flow. Glut, encroaching famine, seasonal availability, food requirements related to extra work that needs to be done. All this ensures that the biome has a broad spectrum of constituents that can adapt to change in a symbolically useful fashion.
Everytime I've put on weight the way I've lost it is exercise. Didn't change my diet or the quantity I consumed. Not a miracle, what else could possibly happen.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:27AM (5 children)
I find myself *less* hungry after I've exercised. Evenings when I've been at training I've usually no mind for dinner, I just prefer to drink plenty to re-hydrate.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday November 18 2017, @06:15AM (4 children)
I agree, that's a common experience. But weight isn't a thing of one day at a time, and I believe that most studies show that the weight gain averages out over time, so that other times you eat more...perhaps the next morning or something.
That said, exercise certainly contributes to health, stamina, alertness, etc. I wish I didn't dislike it so much.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Saturday November 18 2017, @02:08PM (3 children)
I've always found exercise to be an acquired taste. It seems to take a week or two of regular exercise to condition the body to start giving you that serotonin boost when you work out.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday November 18 2017, @06:37PM (2 children)
Well, for me I know that it would have taken more than 9 months (1 school year I was on track team). These days (decades later) though it's actively painful.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Saturday November 18 2017, @09:39PM (1 child)
I don't do any intentional cardio, I walk when it's necessary and don't bother otherwise. I keep my exercise to low impact calisthenics, pushups and squats etc, and 2x daily stretching, which is more than enough to have me in reasonable shape and feeling healthy and without pain when I do have to move around. Cardio is the reason people hate exercise, it always sucks. Bodyweight exercises can be done anywhere, anytime, require no financial or time investment, and aren't painful or difficult once you attain the base level of strength required to do a couple pushups.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday November 19 2017, @12:21AM
If you can do even one squat, your knees are in better shape than mine...and I'd recommend you check with a doctor or physical therapist to make sure you aren't injuring yourself. Squats are dangerous.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 17 2017, @06:00PM (4 children)
The thinking on exercise bothers me. When did "exercise" become something that you had to work into your schedule? Used to be exercise was only something that those weird rich liberals from California did, while the rest of us labored on the farm. Now somehow this "getting your exercise" by doing frivolous and otherwise useless things, and even buying expensive and bulky items such as the exercise bike, has become mainstream, at least in the US. It's a triumph of commercialism.
I get most of my exercise doing useful things like housework. It's not as intense as a hard workout at a gym, but it sure saves a lot of money. Drives me crazy that the same family members who want a gym membership also want maid service.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @06:09PM
I get most of my exercise doing useful things like housework.
Not everyone has a big house needing that much housework. And housework isn't really aerobic exercise, nor particularly strenuous. Proper exercise needs to get your heartbeat to an elevated level for an extended period of time to be effective.
The thinking on exercise bothers me. When did "exercise" become something that you had to work into your schedule? Used to be... It's a triumph of commercialism.
No, it's a triumph of automobile and suburban culture. Go to New York City sometime and spend a couple weeks there (it'll cost you; hotels are expensive). People there don't need that much exercise, because they're walking everywhere all the time, and consequently, you don't see any obese people there, at least in Manhattan. People need exercise now because they don't live on farms, and the extent of their physical activity is walking from the parking lot into a store. (And even here, they drive in circles to get the closest parking space they can.)
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday November 17 2017, @06:35PM
You answered your own question. No one is laboring on farms unless they are low wage migrant workers. We created a more sedentary lifestyle thanks to the automobile, automation, offshoring, and desk jobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @07:38PM (1 child)
> buying expensive and bulky items such as the exercise bike
I have exercise bikes, but didn't have to buy them -- just kept my eyes open on trash day. Exercise equipment is thrown out on a regular basis in the suburbs. Must be the stuff of forgotten dreams (dreams of a flat stomach!)
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday November 17 2017, @08:26PM
I think they wind up realizing they don't need as many coat racks taking up space in their homes.
Seriously though, most of the home exercise equipment industry is a scam. The only people who buy that shit are obese women. I have met only a handful of people who actually use their home equipment on a regular basis. Two are bodybuilders who have a simple weight set (one has a treadmill for winter running.) The other is my friend's mother who had a nordic track until it broke, then switched to a treadmill and a small weight set. Those people were serious about their exercise routines.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday November 17 2017, @05:02PM (5 children)
How does one go about determining the overall percentage of a product that is sugar? Or is this all just educated guessing?
They sometimes mention that ingredients are "less than 2% of:" on labels but sweeteners rarely fall below that line. And anything else doesn't mention ratios other than the ordering.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @06:04PM
That one seems a bit odd to me too, but I guess you could just look at the nutrition info and count the grams of sugar, multiplied by number of portions per package, and divide by the net weight.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 17 2017, @06:11PM (1 child)
I multiply by 3 in my head. If the amount of sugar per serving * 3 is more than the serving size, then the product is more than 1/3 sugar.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday November 17 2017, @07:35PM
This won't work for a great many foods that are packaged as individual serving pieces, though. If there's .5g of sugar in a muffin, it's more than 1/3 sugar? .5g * 3 = 1.5 > 1 muffin
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Friday November 17 2017, @06:15PM (1 child)
Look at the ingredients list. If it has a refined sugar product in it do not buy it. Food does not need to have refined sweeteners added to it. Develop a taste for real food. Within a few months you will not be able to stomach the industrial byproducts that the food industry is passing off as "food".
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday November 18 2017, @10:30AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday November 17 2017, @06:44PM (1 child)
Interesting. First time I've heard that. Wonder if it's true. I've got quite bad acne that's left uncool scars all over my face. Never been able to do anything about it usefully. Most medicines have had no effect, or had such severe side effects that long term use wasn't practical. I probably drink 1-3 sodas a day, and a coffee with sugar, on top of other things.
I've wanted to cut back, but it's hard. I'm so used to soda. I've sworn the stuff of for periods each year for the past 2 years (1-2 months at a time) when I had stomach issues and had to cut nearly all acids out of my diet until I could recover, but I start craving it again really bad after about a month.
Part of this is somehow tea and water is just really boring to me. I haven't been able to find another drink that seems to suit.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 17 2017, @07:15PM
As I recall, it was an article I read years ago in Science News. The son of an ice cream shop owner grew up on ice cream and suffered from terrible acne. The article linked the problem not to the dairy, but to the sugar in the ice cream.
My own experience suggests it's true. Whenever I indulge in sweets, have myself a mini binge, like at Halloween, a few days later my face breaks out. My face completely clears up whenever I manage to entirely avoid sweets. Not easy to do, with sugar lurking in so many foods. Most of the time, I indulge a little, and have a little bit of acne.
Low or no sugar drinks, that aren't plain water? Tough one. What about soup or broth? One could drink broth.