Yawn, Now It's A War On Sugar In Food
Erin Allday writes at the SF Chronicle that Robert Lustig (whose video on the harm done by eating sugar I have blogged before) now wants to bully people into not eating it:
Like alcohol and tobacco, sugar is a toxic, addictive substance that should be highly regulated with taxes, laws on where and to whom it can be advertised, and even age-restricted sales, says a team of UCSF scientists.In a paper published in Nature on Wednesday, they argue that increased global consumption of sugar is primarily responsible for a whole range of chronic diseases that are reaching epidemic levels around the world.
Sugar is so heavily entrenched in the food culture in the United States and other countries that getting people to kick the habit will require much more than simple education and awareness campaigns, the UCSF scientists said.
It's going to require public policy that gently guides people toward healthier choices and uses brute force to remove sugar from so many of the processed foods we eat every day, said Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF.
"The only method for dealing with this is a public health intervention," Lustig said in an interview. "Everyone talks about personal responsibility, and that won't work here, as it won't for any addictive substance. These are things that have to be done at a governmental level, and government has to get off its ass."
How was it that I was able to cut out sugar without anyone taxing it through the roof or banning it? Hmmm...either I have magical powers...or...I read the science on sugar and carbohydrates like flour, starchy vegetables, and juice and decided I'd rather be healthy than eat them, and applied the requisite self-discipline.
I eat a scoop of chocolate gelato about once a week, but otherwise have zero sugar or flour, and subsist...yes, weep for me...on bacon, steak, heavily buttered green beans, omelets, cheese, dry italian sausage, and salad with a lot of dressing on it.
What I eat, contrary to what the AMA and the government have contended is healthy for years, is an extremely healthy diet...one that keeps me slim, keeps my skin young, and leads me to need far less sleep and exercise that I ever could have imagined. Listen to my radio show with Dr. Michael Eades and Dr. Mary Dan Eades for more on this.
via Overlawyered
"It's going to require public policy that gently guides people toward healthier choices and uses brute force to remove sugar from so many of the processed foods we eat every day, said Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF."
Sounds like a regulator's dream come true to me. Especially the brute force part. I dunno; I'd like to think there are some people over at FDA saying, "Oh, no, please don't make us enforce something like this!" But I'm pretty sure there are plenty of others saying, "All riiiight!"
Old RPM Daddy at February 3, 2012 7:53 AM
This is stupid. The producers are just going to switch to some other sweetener that may or may not be worse. They pulled this stupidity with clove cigarettes. So now they sell them in packs of ten for what they paid for 20 before the ban. Or instead of gun runners and drug lords there will be sugar barons. Next we'll be fire bombing sugar cane fields.
Not sure I blame the politicians but the idiot voters. If any politician tries to decry these idiot bans they get labeled as anti-children stooges of the sugar industrial complex.
Just like almost every problem we currently face it all stems from personal responsibility becoming an offensive concept.
BTW having seen a few pirate wenches at the local SCA wouldn't mind riding IN them to work.
vlad at February 3, 2012 8:48 AM
"...these are things that have to be done at the governmental level...."
You, sir, need to leave the premises. We don't need anymore government intrusion on our lives. Even if you think it's in my best interests. We already have a government which supposedly looks out for our best interests, and what invariably ends up happening is erosion of liberty.
Joe at February 3, 2012 9:07 AM
I came across Lustig on youtube the other day. Search for Lustig and sugar, he has a 90min lecture posted that is interesting. My impression of him was that he is so passionate about it, he is willing to go full health nazi on it. All while ignoring that it could very well lead to the same problems that got us here with the fed gov food pyramid.
There is also a video of him "yelling" at Taubes about fructose not being mentioned as a problem by Taubes.
Sio at February 3, 2012 10:08 AM
@Joe: "We already have a government which supposedly looks out for our best interests, and what invariably ends up happening is erosion of liberty."
True, but you're preaching to the choir here, just like I am. Dr. Lustig's own words suggest strongly he doesn't care a whit about erosion of anyone's liberty, and I'm willing to bet a lot of people don't care about the erosion of other people's liberty either, as long as they don't think their own liberty is affected.
Old RPM Daddy at February 3, 2012 10:15 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/02/yawn-now-its-a.html#comment-2954287">comment from Old RPM DaddyDr. Lustig's own words suggest strongly he doesn't care a whit about erosion of anyone's liberty,
I'd rather live in a country of morbidly obese people than a country where civil liberties are yanked away -- whether for health reasons or any other reason.
Amy Alkon
at February 3, 2012 1:05 PM
Tweet.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at February 3, 2012 1:39 PM
"sugar is a toxic, addictive substance". Jesus H. G. N. Christ. I would say this is a rape of the English language, except that the word "rape" has been so badly raped that it's no longer a word. Every day, millions of people eat sugar and suffer no ill effects. We all know that ingestion of anything, in sufficient quantities, will kill you, including water and oxygen.
Lustig may be brilliant in his field. But this statement marks him as a grade-A fuckwad that I refuse to pay any further attention to regardless. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have another Coke.
Cousin Dave at February 3, 2012 4:44 PM
People eat sugar because it tastes good. Calling it "addictive" is total bullshit. I can go weeks without sugar, have that occasional sweet treat, and then go weeks without it again effortlessly. In comparison, I haven't been without caffiene for more than two days straight for the last 25 years without having massive headaches and terrible mood swings.
KarenW at February 3, 2012 5:49 PM
I also hate the idea of taxing sugar, for all the reasons people have so eloquently listed above. But I also have to admit that by calling for a tax, Lustig has gotten a mainstream conversation going in a way that even Gary Taubes hasn't been to achieve. Maybe something good -- and hopefully not a tax -- will eventually come of this. Wouldn't it be great if even more people watched Lustig's video, or encountered more of the science and history of carbohydrate consumption? (And if we in the US started to consider the radical idea of not subsidizing corn and wheat?)
Rose at February 4, 2012 7:16 AM
Progressives have a deep affection for World War II. The government was in charge and most things were planned, controlled, assigned, and rationed.
Look at the accomplishments. We won the war, women were employed, personal consumption was low and rationed, sugar and flour were rationed, we were all working together for a common cause, and this form of society supposedly ended the Great Depression, supposedly caused by greedy capitalists. Progressives were in charge and they were kings.
Sugar consumption can be lowered by taxes, and then ration cards as needed. Rationing of everything can be efficiently integrated into convenient credit cards, after all credit functions are regulated by government agencies. That "green" automobile will look a whole lot better after the second time your card won't buy gasoline.
It won't be so bad. There won't be much to go out for, anyway.
Andrew_M_Garland at February 4, 2012 9:53 AM
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