Posted on 02/01/2012 2:55:04 PM PST by EagleUSA
Is sugar as dangerous as alcohol and tobacco?
One group of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, says so. And they are urging a tax on sugary treats and some action by the government to get Americans to cut back on sugar.
In an editorial published today in the journal Nature, the UCSF doctors, Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis, said the ballooning rates — and costs — of obesity, diabetes and other diseases, mean it’s time for regulators to lump sugar into the same category as booze and cigarettes and put similar restrictions on its sale and availability.
Increased control is necessary, they say, because efforts to keep excessive sugar out of the American diet have failed. “So far, evidence shows that individually focused approaches, such as school-based interventions that teach children about diet and exercise, demonstrate little efficacy.”
The authors say the government should consider taxing any processed foods that have added sugar, including soda, juice, chocolate milk and sugared cereal.
Other efforts should aim to make sugary foods and drinks hard to get, like imposing age limits for buying soda and controlling when and where sugary foods are sold. They also envision something like a sugar-free zone around schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Something really slimy and seriously permanent needs to happen to all these Nazis before they come for our Chocolate!
;-)
Or that the doctor, faced with trying to explain a biochemical pathway to someone with no scientific background, simplified the explanation so much that it became incorrect. In that a fraction of the alcohol *does* enter the TCA after a few processing steps--the end result (of at least that pathway) is the same as if the alcohol were sugar, since the TCA is mostly fed by glucose.
Oversimplified explanations are the reason why I don't read scientific articles, books, etc., written for the general public.
From reading your posts, it appears to me that your weight loss was not from avoiding sugar, but from making an overall change in your food choices and taking more time to prepare the food. When you can throw something in the microwave and eat it 5 minutes later, you really can eat too much very easily.
Just because you live in Manhattan doesn’t mean you have to eat pre-prepared foods all the time. You can still buy fresh produce and meat, and take it home and cook it. “Organic” is merely a selling tool—scientifically, there is no difference in nutritional value between “organic” and regular produce, and there is no reason you should avoid fresh produce just because it does not have that “organic” label on it. (I won’t say it’s “non-organic”—scientifically speaking, all foods are, in fact, organic.)
There are plenty of thin people with diabetes.
Don’t worry, I hear that our chocolate ration is going up to 25 grams per week!
;-)
They tried this in WA state, it didn’t pass. They have to get every tax increase approved through a voter initiative and this one didn’t come close to approval.
There’s an article in the Seattle paper, today about a woman who is suing to have porn blocked from computers at the library because her young daughter was sitting next to a man who spent his whole time looking at porn. The Seattlites think that viewing porn at the library is a right.
I live fairly close to Seattle. Can’t say I’m surprised. From their perspective, not only is it a “right” but it’s a “right” that has to be paid for by the taxpayers.
You’ve proved my point - there is a junk DIET.
Just sayin'... ;^)
I haven't been toking, I swear.
(But now I will) :)
Like marijuana "causing" psychological problems.
Well, there are several types of diabetes, but the term essentially refers to the body's inability to process suger.
Type 1 diabetes, often occurs in normal weight individuals as children, but the much more common Type 2 usually is developed by overweight adults.
Funny coincidence how we have a diabetes epidemic in the US and simultaneously, Americans are fatter than ever.
Hmmmmmm....
Well, no...not if you simply look at it. You'd have to eat it.
Bottom line, if you consume more calories per day than you burn...you're going to gain weight.
What other substance has such a concentrated high caloric content, and needs virtually no digestion to be passed into the blood stream?
The above combination makes it very easy to overwhelm the body's systems and cause the excess to be stored as fat, or to tax the body's ability to utilize insulin or produce it in sufficient amounts.
It is practically impossible to find prepared food without sugar in it. But think of the folks that start the day with coffee, cream and sugar, Dunkin donut, or cereal with sugar, a Pepsi...several a day. And the same is true of white flour, it turns to sugar as soon as you start to chew it.
Folks are pounding down tons of the stuff to their own demise, and although I think it's their right to do so, they should have the information so they can make good choices.
Well, thanks in any event ‘’Mom’’. Today, alcohol isn’t a problem for me. BTW, are you a doctor per chance?
Thanks for your reply. As I said to ‘’Mom, alcohol isn’t a problem for me today. You seem knowledgeable about alcohol/sugar, and alcohol, that is alcohol fermented from fruits is sugar, are you a doctor?
I bow to your awesome iconography. Me, I’m just a recovering alcoholic. I meant fruits( sugars) like grapes and raisins are raw fructose, aren’t they?’’ Raisin mash’’ is about the most potent form of alcohol there is.
YEAH! Tax diabetics for having higher glucose levels.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.