'is sugar the next tobacco?'

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There's a long but interesting lecture in here. I would like to see more data about other potential culprits placed side-by-side with fructose, but on its own the lecture is fairly convincing.
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/is_suga ... t_tobacco/

More "safety/health is more important than personal choice" drama.

Well, when someone's poor health ultimately costs all of society, health is more important than personal choice.

It goes back to that Edmund Burke quote I posted in your nurse thread--People who live in free societies are obliged to be responsible and restrain themselves.

Freedom does not mean you can do whatever you like. It means you have the privilege of controlling yourself. If you cannot control yourself, you must BE controlled for the common good.

To the OP, I think there is more and more evidence pointing to the idea that a calorie is not a calorie. What we eat has a huge impact on our hormones and our hormones determine whether or not we will be fat and unhealthy.

Highly refined carbs like sugar and white flour are not good for us--certainly not in the quantities consumed by many people.

Do I want to see sugar/junk food controlled or banned? No, I do not. But, maybe that stuff should have an extra tax added to the price (like tobacco products) to help pay for the negative impact its consumption has on public health.

I will go back to the quote I posted, he who sacrifices liberty for security deserves neither. The nurse was a bad example because of of her job, but this is one area that self control is an absolute right, responsibility matters not. I am in no way a Libertarian, but I value my RIGHT to choose or not choose. Some people are less responsible than others, but it would be wrong to deny them the right to choose, they would learn from their mistakes eventually.

Yes, and some people just don't care about the consequences they set on others.

And they should not, everyone one is responsible for themselves and no one else, except in the case of parents of young children. In that case, they are responsible for themselves and their offspring and no one else.

High fructose corn syrup is pure poison. It causes instant inflammation and your body can barely process any of it for useful energy.

A ban would never happen in our free market driven by sugar addicts. Phood manufacturers are just raking in the profits and marketing to deceive the public about what is and isn't healthy.

It certainly shouldn't be subsidized, either.


not to derail the thread further but... you are not just only responsible for yourself. What you choose to do has an impact on your surroundings and everyone is effected to a degree. I understand social challenges may make it hard for you to consider this but it is still true. No man is an island. Its called social responsibility and its necessary for sustaining human life on this planet.

No.

That's utter BS. Long before Obamacare we as a society decided that we would not let people die because of lack of ability to pay for healthcare.

That means that ALL OF US are obliged ( to each other) to take reasonable care of ourselves.

It's the price of living in a (somewhat) civilized society.

+1

And the onward march of the neo-prohibitionist loons who really should be in mental asylums carries on...

I'm in Tejas, land of people who don't give a s**t about their health. It's totally fine with me if people are alright with having diabetes and heart complications, and an endless slew of health problems from doing absolutely nothing to take care of their bodies, and consuming almost nothing but garbage. Lots of people do it, lots of people don't. But I know so many people who are on public assistance, as are their parents and grandparents and their kids. It's not that they don't work, it's that they are underworked or don't make enough to support themselves or their family. So they end up needing a lot of public assistance. They end up buying the most affordable and satisfying foods, junk food, it's way cheaper. AT LEAST IN TERMS of quick and satisfying when you don't have time to cook a lot of meals. Some people are just too exhausted to take an extra step or forego the one thing that they enjoy etc. etc.

I have no solutions for this. It's hard to avoid temptation when you grow up on s**t food and it makes you feel better in the short term. Even if in the long term that is costing everyone else money.

So for some people I do think it's a problem they need help with, but I don't know what that help would be. I don't know how to help people. I don't know how the government can help the nation. I have no f*****g idea but sugar is a huge problem that a lot of people are choosing for themselves. If we want to take care of people I do think preventative treatment is the best option, but I don't know, I'm not a professional anything and I just don't know.

"Some people are just too exhausted.." - Did you ever consider why that is?

The problem is more to do with ignorance and misguided attempts, in a world filled with egocentrics and dollar signs. What you put into your body, DOES actually make a difference to your overall physical and mental health. It's not just an overused slogan. You just have to find out the why's.

I love sweets. I'm overweight. But ... I don't eat that many sweets. I'm still fat. My biggest problem with my weight is a changed metabolism, stress (which makes me feel hungry), and a total lack of motivation to exercise that has been with me all my life but really has only affected my weight since my metabolism changed as I got older and I subsequently took a round of antidepressants.

I know what I need to do. Avoid stress. Good luck with that, right? It was the same thing doctors used to tell me to do to avoid migraines and I would look at them as if they were nuts. Avoid stress? I had a job, bills to pay, a spouse, all the other stress everyone has, and then some because the social aspects of my job were especially hard on me and I had some family matters that were as well.

On another tack, a few years back I did a little reading about the various types of sugar (yes, there are different types), and apparently fructose is one of the worst types, as it's metabolised mostly by the liver and is harder on the liver than other forms of sugar.

Ironically a few years ago something became popular with health food enthusiasts as a way of cutting back on suger use in recipes. It's called Agave Syrup. I kept seeing it in recipes, touted as such a better alternative, but when I read about what it is, I learned that it's a high fructose by product of the tequila industry, being sold as if it's gold for your health - and health food nuts everywhere swallowed the advertising - the same people who were saying things like high-fructose corn syrup is poison. Then I learned that honey, which has always been said to be healthier than sugar, is also higher than table sugar in fructose.

Nutritional information can be just crazy if one follows the current trends and doesn't do a little research and think for oneself!

I also agree with other posters that the sensationalism of things like this completely ignores the fact that everyone is going to die of something. If I die in my 80s of something related to sugar intake, so be it. I'll be happy to have made it to my 80s! But I still plan to eat cake now and then, because I love it.

Last edited by BlueAbyss on 10 Jan 2013, 8:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Did you ever consider the why is super obvious and implied repeatedly in my post, in which I also called sugar and eating nothing but junk problematic?

Nah, I've never once considered the why's. I'm obviously oblivious, if you didn't notice.

I would bet most people know the long term health risks their diets pose, at least in America. People are rarely ignorant of sh***y diets putting strain on their bodies.

I think you overestimate people. If they knew the risk, why do they feed their children into obesity?

Instead of taxing sugar or some other nonsense, educating parents about how to feed their children looks more productive to me.

I don't see how eating food that contains sugar really creates consequences for others....its my own damn business if I have a soda, I don't see how it hurts anyone. Sure healthy eating and drinking should be encouraged but I would not agree with it being mandated, and until better quality healthy food is sold at an affordable price they should not raise taxes on less healthy food since currently it's cheaper.