Is sugar the next tobacco?
It will be if author Robert Lustig, the man behind the YouTube sensation “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” has his way
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/is_sugar_the_next_tobacco/
I talk a time or twain about how the evidence is building up that processed food (particularly sugar) is very unhealthy for you except in small amounts. Much as I harp on exercise as critical to health, I feel obligated to pound a bit on the idea of cutting back on processed food. Sugar, flour, etc. have been carefully refined to remove any trace of non-metabolizable material from it (flour is nothing more than chemically linked sugar; the poor old potato is nothing more than a lump of sugar to your body) meaning that 100% of the intake will be used by the body. Back when food was scarce and we all engaged in back breaking labor 18 hours a day, that sort of refinement meant we could eat less food (physical bulk) but be able to metabolize more calories. What was once a survival issue has now become a detriment. Processed food, in our current society, is really nothing more than slow poison for the majority of our population. Of course, there are powerful interest groups that make huge buckets of money from that poison, so, exactly like the tobacco industry, don’t expect any swift action on the part of our government! As mentioned in the article, it is likely to be a long slow slog before the public health consequences are fully realized and something is actually done about it.
