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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSugar is 'addictive and the most dangerous drug of the times'
Soft drinks should carry tobacco-style warnings that sugar is highly addictive and dangerous, a senior Dutch health official has warned.
Paul van der Velpen, the head of Amsterdam's health service, the Dutch capital city where the sale of cannabis is legalised, wants to see sugar tightly regulated.
"Just like alcohol and tobacco, sugar is actually a drug. There is an important role for government. The use of sugar should be discouraged. And users should be made aware of the dangers," he wrote on an official public health website.
"This may seem exaggerated and far-fetched, but sugar is the most dangerous drug of the times and can still be easily acquired everywhere."
Mr Van der Velpen cites research claiming that sugar, unlike fat or other foods, interferes with the body's appetite creating an insatiable desire to carry on eating, an effect he accuses the food industry of using to increase consumption of their products.
"Sugar upsets that mechanism. Whoever uses sugar wants more and more, even when they are no longer hungry. Give someone eggs and he'll stop eating at any given time. Give him cookies and he eats on even though his stomach is painful," he argued.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/10314705/Sugar-is-addictive-and-the-most-dangerous-drug-of-the-times.html
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joeybee12
(56,177 posts)
David__77
(23,492 posts)I do agree that the society is way too carbed-out. It is well-founded in medical science that a low carb diet is better. This shouldn't be something where coercion is involved. Other means should be used to influence people's dietary habits. In the longer term, when food is abundant (and healthy food is cheap), then we might possibly be able to reasonably talk about taxing unhealthy foods.
dkf
(37,305 posts)
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)3 zillion names you might change your mind. Walk a mile in my shoes and it will blow your mind. You would be ASTOUNDED how few foods out there don't have sugar in it.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)There are even criminals out there who raise sugar-yielding crops in their yards!
dkf
(37,305 posts)
LuvNewcastle
(16,855 posts)we might have to start regulating sugary foods and drinks. I'm not in favor of banning anything, but sugar consumption is way out of hand and the number of people dying from diet-related illnesses involving eating too much sugar is probably comparable to the amount of people dying from drinking too much alcohol. A lot of kids are developing diabetes now too, which is really terrible. They'll likely die young.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Enzymes in saliva begin to depolymerize the starch into monosaccharides. Most carbs, including disaccharides like cane sugar, are hydrolyzed to monosaccharides before being absorbed in the small intestines. Some are converted to short chain fatty acids by gut bacteria.
MineralMan
(146,327 posts)This is terrible reporting. Humans have eaten sugar from the very beginning, in fruit, honey, and other forms. It is a FOOD! Some people eat too much of it. Some foods have too much of it in them. But sugar is not a drug.
Irresponsible reporting on someone with an irresponsible point of view.
dkf
(37,305 posts)MineralMan
(146,327 posts)Sugar is a food, not a drug. It's a normal part of the human diet, and always has been. It's one of the basic tastes we can recognize from tasting. We evolved to eat sugar and to want to eat sugar.
It is not a drug. It is eaten in too large a quantity by some people. It is a component of too many foods. It is still not a drug.
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)ocurring in a wide range of foods. Craving sweet taste is part of instinct. The first food most humans eat contains lactose. We seek out sweet taste in response to hunger -- it is hardwired into us. But the mechanism is more complex -- artifical sweetners can trigger cravings for REAL sugars.
We are "addicted" to water also but that doesn't make water a drug, or something that needs regulation.
dkf
(37,305 posts)The amounts of sugar we now consume are way beyond what was available throughout human history.
What happens to your body and your brain when it is constantly swimming in the chemical reactions of sugar?
I thought this was an interesting article:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/sunlight-sugar-and-serotonin
MineralMan
(146,327 posts)all foods. It's not all that difficult, really. One simply chooses the food one consumes. If I am curious about the ingredients in some packaged food I am thinking of buying, I read its label, which shows the ingredients, listed in order amount in the product. I don't know of any packaged foods that do not have this labeling.
For raw foods I prepare at home, I know what's in those, too.
There is no doubt that over-consumption of sugar can cause problems for people. That does not make sugar a "drug." I makes sugar a substance some consume in quantities that are not good for them.
You appear to be deliberately ignoring my point. Sugar is a food, not a drug. Eat it in moderation and you'll be just fine. That is true of almost any food. I like well-marbled beef, but I don't like to consume too much animal fat. So, I don't eat steak very often. That does not mean that I consider animal fat to be a "drug." It is a food that can harm me if I over-consume. So, I don't do that.
I like cookies, too, and candy. If I eat cookies, I eat just a few, or even just one. Same with candy. I can do that without harming myself, and I enjoy the flavor. If I could not control my consumption of those things, I would not eat any of them. But, I can control it, without any difficulty.
Food can hurt you if you eat too much of it. Food is not a drug, though.
I promise not to make you eat too much sugar, as long as you don't insist that I eat no sugar. How's that?
cali
(114,904 posts)and bake my 8 layered walnut torte with chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream.
MineralMan
(146,327 posts)with a single scoop of your ice cream on the side. Thanks! If you have some coffee made, I'd have some of that, too, if it's not too much trouble.
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)and HFCS, not naturally occurring sugars.
TeeYiYi
(8,028 posts)Too much sugar really is bad for you. It rots your teeth, makes you fat, messes with your brain chemistry and kills your pancreas and liver.
It also feeds cancer.
Cancer cells love sugar. They crave sugar. Cancer cells thrive in an anaerobic, oxygen-free environment. They require sugar to ferment and spread.
I avoid refined sugars like the plague. Not because I have cancer but because I hope to avoid it.
If you are already fighting cancer, sugar is likely the worst thing that you could consider putting into your body.
Following is an excerpt from a good article about the dangers of sugar. I recommend reading it in its entirety.
By Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD, ND
<snip>
2. What is the connection to cancer?
Sugar may be one of our favorite vices but the dark side to sugar is that it is quite capable of setting up an environment for cancer growth. A consistent finding in epidemiological studies is that people who consume the most calories have significantly higher rates of cancer. There are several reasons why overeating causes cancer, but one overlooked reason is that more gene mutations occur in response to higher caloric intake. A host of vitamins and minerals are required to digest food and the more food we eat, the more nutrients we need. The immune system also needs nutrients to do the work of cancer cell surveillance and destruction. If we over utilize nutrients to digest excess quantities of food, they just aren’t available to help keep us cancer free.
We’ve known since 1931 that cancer cells crave sugar; excess sugar feeds rapidly dividing cancer cells. Otto Warburg, Ph.D., a prolific researcher in Germany, was given a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery that cancer cells depend mainly on glucose for their food supply. Cancer cells devour glucose without the aid of oxygen and consequently produce a large amount of lactic acid. The build up in lactic acid creates a more acidic pH in and around cancerous tissues. An acid pH in the body contributes to the overall physical fatigue experienced by cancer patients.2 Numerous studies in peer-reviewed journals show that sugar increases prostate, colon, and biliary tract cancer.
<snip>
Much more: http://arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/the-scary-truth-about-sugar/
TYY
bemildred
(90,061 posts)But seriously, wouldn't education and consciousness raising work better than coercion? I agree that sugar-abuse should be discouraged, but is prohibition the right way?
dkf
(37,305 posts)But I so think we aren't aware of how sugar works in our bodies and how pervasive it is in our food.
