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from the sweets-for-my-sweet,-sugar-for-my-honey-The-Drifters-1961 dept.
Lustig, the maverick scientist, has long argued that sugar is as harmful as cocaine or tobacco – and that the food industry has been adding too much of it to our meals for too long.
If you have any interest at all in diet, obesity, public health, diabetes, epidemiology, your own health or that of other people, you will probably be aware that sugar, not fat, is now considered the devil's food. Dr Robert Lustig's book, Fat Chance: The Hidden Truth About Sugar, Obesity and Disease ( http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/25/fat-chance-robert-lustig-review ), for all that it sounds like a Dan Brown novel, is the difference between vaguely knowing something is probably true, and being told it as a fact. Lustig has spent the past 16 years treating childhood obesity. His meta-analysis of the cutting-edge research on large-cohort studies of what sugar does to populations across the world, alongside his own clinical observations, has him credited with starting the war on sugar. When it reaches the enemy status of tobacco, it will be because of Lustig.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/aug/24/robert-lustig-sugar-poison
I think moderation is the key. What do you think ?
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Wednesday August 27 2014, @06:48PM
There's a big difference between smoking and eating too much. If you smoke when not alone, you threaten the health of others.
Yes there's that difference. But there's also the similarity that people don't take the risks seriously until it happens to them. By which time it is too late - diabetes and heart disease are for life just as cancer is. This in't an individual failure, but is systematic - it's a function of the normal way the brain treats risk - and so individuals shouldn't be blamed.
Oh, and of course alcohol is unhealthy. So bring back prohibition!
Actually the evidence is that the first alcoholic drink drink of the day is positive for health, due to the antioxidants. That may vary depending on the type of drink. But a glass of wine a day for sure is a good and healthy thing.
As to the free choice thing when eating, actually most of the decisions are made by the processed foods industry. People COULD make decisions to override this by for example cutting out processed foods from their diet, but most don't. It's not that they decide to eat processed foods and be unhealthy - they just don't decide at all.
Also there is nothing more unacceptable about governments making decisions about the contents of processed foods then corporations making those decisions.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!