For most of my life, tobacco has been public enemy number one when it comes to healthcare. But that is no longer true. It’s now public enemy number two, because public enemy number one is sugar.
Sugar is added to every ultra-processed food that our society now produces, and it’s added by big business to keep you hooked on food. Literally addicted to overeating.
Man might want to look closer to home really. It’s sometimes estimated that iatrogenic problems – that is, mistakes by doctors – is the leading modern killer. Even less hyperbolic numbers put it at number two or three. He should know this, he is married to a doctor after all.
“to keep you hooked on food.”
Gad! Who would have even imagined such evil!
I’m a T2 diabetic. It isn’t hard to moderate your sugar intake as I have to. Actually carbohydrates generally are what I have to watch. There is a nutrition chart on all packaged food that I can refer to and I have a book entitled Carbs and Cals which I can refer to for everything else. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Food manufacturers would soon stop lacing their products with mountains of salt and sugar* if people stopped buying their products.
*I’m not sure that they do really, the problem is probably being exaggerated by the usual prodnosed people.
Is Spud an advocate of the ‘Healthy, Low Fat* Diet’ that is pushed by ‘the scientific consensus’ and which has been a major cause of obesity and Diabetes in the world today?
*Low fat meaning you have to bung in as much sugar as necessary to make the ‘healthy option’ platable?
Definitely the case that “Big Food” manipulates people who have no choice, can’t possibly buy whole grain bread or crackers or read the labels. It’s not like there are sugar free options for soda or yogurt or ice cream.
And just for kicks, when I was a lad the U.S. gov’t put out a food pyramid of what we should eat. The bottom part, the biggest part of our recommended diet – bread, rice, pasta, potatoes i.e. – carbs.
“It’s now public enemy number two, because public enemy number one is sugar.”
Nononononono. The slippery slope is a fallacy, dontcherknow. Tobacco was an absolutely unique case, and nobody’s ever going to try the same tactics on anything else they don’t like. Pinky swear.
Meanwhile, in the real world – thanks, presumably, to the sugar tax – the only two fizzy drinks on sale today made only with sugar are full-fat Coke – Pepsi caved to the panic-merchants sometime last year and the stuff now tastes like rather flat diet limeade – and some of Waitrose’s own-brand lemonade. (And I’m suspicious about the latter. It definitely doesn’t taste right this year.)
it should by now be clearly empirically established that public health officials do more damage than sugar
…established that public health officials do more damage
Quite so, Emil.
I was beginning to think that maybe the medical profession was at last, after 3,000 years of killing people, starting to save more lives than they destroyed.
Then along came the Wuhan flu…
Both my parents were pathologists. The stories they told…
Well, the anecadata they told.
Now that you can buy decent 0% beer why would you drink brown sugar water?
PiP: A few years ago I tried a few 0% beers, but everything tasted bleugh! Any recommendations?
@jgh: Sainsbury’s did a very decent Czech lager but it seems they don’t do it any more. A couple of the Adnam’s beers are good: I’ve enjoyed Ghost Ship and Sole Bay, though I don’t see the latter on their website – an experiment that failed?
A few of the obvs lagers are OK: Peroni, Moretti for example and (surprisingly?) Heineken. There’s also a Spanish one whose name I have forgotten. Erdinger’s wheat beer is OK too.
It’s been a while but I really enjoyed Brew Dog’s Nanny State. There was one from Big Drop I liked too.
Alone among commenters here I don’t drink much alcohol. But an ice-cold full-fat coke is a wondrous thing.
PiP: Adnam’s is our local brewery, and they have a penchant for doing brews for a year or two then retiring them. It’s not necessarily a failure, they just do that. I liked Regatta as a summer brew years ago but that’s long gone. Apart from their cooking bitter (called Southwold for a few years now) and the stronger Broadside, Ghost Ship is the current long-term brew that has a low alcohol option. Personally I prefer dark beers and they do Old Ale in the winter. They used to do Oyster stout but I haven’t seen that since Covid.
I ought to move to Masham though, we rarely see Old Peculier down here.
I avoid low alcohol beers for religious reasons but I’m told the Guinness 0% tastes pretty similar to the real one.
Is it really any better to take sugar out and replace with sweeteners, certainly ruins the taste
As above it’s very hard to find soft drinks without sweeteners, we do have a local place that sells Mexican coke made with cane sugar that I buy as a treat
The other one is to look out for Kosher Coke around Passover. Mebbe not in BC but mebbe…..
To clarify I meant Coca Cola made in Mexico
@Martin..
Yes. Guinness Zero is pretty good, it’s a fair copy of the real thing. Don’t drink it immediately after drinking the real stuff though, the difference becomes quite obvious.
@Sam Duncan – “he only two fizzy drinks on sale today made only with sugar are full-fat Coke”
There’s also Irn Bru 1901 (in Sainsbury’s) – sugar and no sweeteners. I’m not sure if you’d count Dalston’s fizzy rhubarb or cherry (in Asda) or Cawston press cans – they are fizzy and have no sweeteners but no sugar either.
Even if you dislike the taste of beer I’m at a loss to see why you’d drink Coke while Pepsi is available. Or Vimto. Or, especially, Dandelion and Burdock.
Pepsi caved to the panic-merchants sometime last year and the stuff now tastes like rather flat diet limeade
That’s interesting. The can of Pepsi I bought in a supermarket here is labelled as containing 4,5g/100ml of hydrates de carbono de cuales azucares 4,5 So the panic-merchants are not running so wild in Dagoland. Or maybe that’s compensating for our fags still being under 4 quid for 20.
Is this linked with Murphy’s weight loss? Diabetes scare from his quack?
From the gov.uk web-site on the Sugar Tax (long name is Soft Drinks Industry Levy, as if the industry pays it!!)
It will have a lower rate which will apply to added sugar drinks with a total sugar content of 5 grams or more per 100 millilitres and a higher rate for drinks with 8 grams or more per 100 millilitres.
I know Pepsi, Barr and many others in the UK dropped their sugar content to just below the threshold to avoid the tax. Also meant it was less tasty. And there was no reduction in obesity so it didn’t work. Although as usual some researcher found in one specific age group, for girls, the rate rose but not as much as expected, therefore it did work.