'is sugar the next tobacco?'

Post Reply New Topic

I'm sick of hearing how "evil" sugar is all the time! It does NOT cause hyperactivity, it does NOT cause diabetes, foods that are high in acid like oranges and tomatoes are more likely to destroy your teeth, and it's no more harmful than other foods if used in moderation. As a non-smoking teetotaler it makes me sick how much society glorifies alcoholism and getting drunk but food, which we need to survive, is treated like poison. Apparently I'm not going to live as long as someone who drinks booze every day because the water I drink is full of bacteria. Grrrrrr.

If by 'food' you mean apples, oranges, grains, meat, cheese, etc, then yes. If by 'food' you mean the processed crap that lines the supermarket aisles, not so much.

My boldface. You hit on half the key to good nutrition right there.

No matter what science discovers or what health food fads we follow, the most basic, sound eating advice is to eat a variety of fresh foods in moderation. We complicate this - and industry complicates it even more - while it's really very simple. The chemical and biological explanations are, of course, more complicated. Even more complicated than nutritional science has yet discovered - they're learning new things all the time. But eating right isn't that complicated. We - with our cravings, self-indulgence and unconscious eating habits - and big business - with its bottom-line thinking, inhumanity (a corporation is a money-making construct, not a person) and shortsightedness - make it that way.

I agree with just about everything you say on this.

Low fat is a sham, they make up for the taste by adding sugar or salt or small amounts of trans fats.

Some things are wrongfully vilified, and it is more of a balance than anything. If you don't eat enough potassium, then yes, too much salt will throw you out of whack (I believe magnesium was already mentioned too). Likewise, if you eat too much LDL and sit on your bum, you are not reaping the benefits of it because it builds muscles. Your body is a network of thousands, possibly even millions of these chemical balances that when balanced enough make it possible for you to live your life from day to day.

Calories are not all created equal and afaik from what i have read calories weren't even intended to measure food to begin with. If something has poor quality junk ingredients it doesn't matter how much calories or the lack thereof it has, it's going to make you lose energy and feel like crap. This is why I never drank soda for instance, because it made me feel like crap.

"Improved taste?" By whose standards? This one is puzzling to me and I imagine the only people dissenting to the previous taste were unhealthy people to begin with. Cue unhealthy taste tester man licking a spoon in a back room adding unhealthy ingredients.

Not to mention a lot of additives like hfcs, MSG and so on coat the tongue and dull the senses to where if you cut them out you start actually tasting your food. And they stick to your gums and teeth something fierce. Also, when you eat too much starches, mouth bacteria loves this and will be happy to give you gum disease.

Too, this is also having a negative effect on the medical community that a lot of people are not thinking of. I think a lot of unhealthy, non-compliant patients are ruining it for everyone else's care. My good friend is overweight and a lot of doctors scribbled "HONDA" (don't remember the exact acronym, but it stands for an obese non compliant diabetic nincompoop patient that nobody likes) in his file, and didn't look further because despite what he tried he felt like crap and the weight was not coming off of him even when he was trying his hardest. He has been whittling down this medical mystery of his and another doc found out that he doesn't have type 2 diabetes after all and his thyroid is messed up. A lot of docs don't even try anymore and don't have faith in their patients to do the work to know the truth and get healthy and just throw pill prescriptions at the patients because the food industry tries to make us sick and the pharma industry licks their chops and goes after it.

Anna

P.s. I really have no idea about this correlation nonsense that billiscool is saying via liberals and contraceptive. I am in a committed relationship (with the only person I have ever slept with, and for many people, some form of intimacy is important to a serious relationship) am a liberal, and billiscool should add up the costs of various contraceptive (some not as cheap and freely available as he thinks it is, and especially not in some places with cutting down on clinics like planned parenthood where many un-covered people obtain their birth control so they stay safe to more likely not get pregnant, to in addition less people to get an abortion by being safe or not have a kid they can't afford) and tally it against the costs of raising a kid (even not taking into account people like myself who flat out don't want kids and never will for their own good) and see how the figure comes out. I guarantee every time the kid will come out to be infinitely more expensive and be more likely a bigger suck on resources like welfare. If you are fiscally conservative even, cutting access to reproductive help/coverage doesn't make a whole lot of sense regardless (in addition to a lot of republicans' obsession with cuts to early childhood programs, our already sub-par maternity leave here in the states, and so on on top of that). That, and you can't legislate people to not have sex because it's just not going to happen that way (just ask where I went to high school, shame-based abstinence only "sex ed,"-- too puny with very little information to call it the real thing, kids screwing at 11, weekly rumors about stds and termination, as well as a fully operational student daycare). I would rather people know the truth and resources and risks of what they are dealing with to make informed choices instead of a "don't do that" that they defy anyway to land in hot water when misinformed and pulled by their desires. Unlike you, I was brought up to live in reality. Sincerely, "liberal sleezebag"