Sugar

I watched a Documentary on Netflix the other day titled Fed Up that was very thought provoking. The documentary was about the problem of obesity in America. This is a much bigger problem than I ever knew it to be. Today in America there are over 50,000 adolescence (under the age of 18) that have type two diabetes.  That number was at 0 a mere 30 years ago. This is the first time that the newest generation is predicted to have a lower life expectancy that the generation that came before it. So with all the advances in modern technology and medical treatment you might ask how this could be possible.

For the past thirty years there have been various scientific findings that show sugar is a leading cause of the obesity problem in America, but every time one of these articles is published or the government attempts to change something in the health standards huge companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or Kellogg will step in and fund scientists to perform research that finds evidence to the contrary of says that there isn’t enough proof. They also make promises that they will make their products healthier or that they will release new products that are healthier for us. So they go out and produce products that are low fat or less calories. But the sugar content is ether kept the same or even higher than it was before.

An interesting point was brought up in the documentary that the last time we so actively and supportively advertised and consumed a product that was so unhealthy was with cigarettes. It took over 50 years after the first research showed cigarettes to be unhealthy for the public to become aware of the dangers. How long will it take for people to realize how damaging the ridiculous number of sugars we consume is to our health?

A study was performed in Harvard that proved sugar was more addictive than cocaine. So with all these products being marketed to children that contain high amounts of sugar these companies are acquiring customers for life because they hook these kids at a young age and they will most likely continue to buy these products for the rest of their lives.

The documentary ends without giving a definitive solutions to this problem to me it seems that every time the government tries to step in and make a change the huge companies That are making their profits off of sugar step in and create a new way to ether distract or deter the government from actually fixing the real problem. So one answer I came up with is that somehow these scientists that know sugar is such a big problem need to find ways just like this documentary to educate the public and especially the parents of our society and from there hopefully they can lead their kids in the right direction.

If you found what I was talking about interesting I highly recommend watching the documentary Fed Up on Netflix it does a much better job than I of explaining this problem.