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Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

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Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#91
post #37
post #13

This doesn't surprise me at all. It took almost 40 years to prove that smoking causes lung cancer. Similarly, despite unambiguous scientific evidence, it still seems acceptable to deny that man-made CO2 release into the atmosphere causes global warming. There's actually a good book covering these two instances and others: "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke…

Common factor: Money to be made. Tobacco was the core of many states' economies, and still remains a massive industry which makes many people wealthy. Dealing with CO2 emissions would have required dealing with fossil fuel use... and that's tons of money and power in play there. Sugar is, at the very least, another substance people crave, and has been making people rich for hundreds of years. Delaying tactics are fea…

> The key is that you have to not give a shit about anyone other than yourself

This is actually quite difficult. Despite its shortcomings (and perhaps ironically) religion can be effective at convincing people to put others first but I would say the default behavior in most people is "I only care about myself and family first". This default behavior is exacerbated when people follow the influence of greed, lust, etc.

Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#94
post #89

I consider sugar to be no different from cocaine (not that I ever tried), but we crave for it the same way people who consume that drug or any other, crave for. Sugar is everywhere, and it's our main source of energy, being that our body feels terrible when its levels are low, but as soon as you eat it feels wonderful. The same goes with cocaine.

One could instead use fats for fuel by cycling in and out of ketosis. After the body adapts, sugar and carb cravings subside.

I would like to see more researches on ketosis diet. Seen by medicine as something that occurs when in starvation, I see it as the natural state of the human body. I eat once a day and I don't feel like I'm starving. And when I eat I don't feast.

Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#95
post #13

This doesn't surprise me at all. It took almost 40 years to prove that smoking causes lung cancer. Similarly, despite unambiguous scientific evidence, it still seems acceptable to deny that man-made CO2 release into the atmosphere causes global warming. There's actually a good book covering these two instances and others: "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke…

did we just go through a "modern" bubble ? I feel like most of post ww2 era was most the dream of a new perception of the world that could sustain its distortion field for a few decades:

- oil based energy now wrecking havoc

- "science" based nutrition

- free market

- communication technology

I'm listing the dark parts but there's something odd in the way we probably all swallowed the pill with such a big grin for so long and now pop, lies lies lies; also you're dying because of stupid practices fueled by greedy scammers.

Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#96
post #13

This doesn't surprise me at all. It took almost 40 years to prove that smoking causes lung cancer. Similarly, despite unambiguous scientific evidence, it still seems acceptable to deny that man-made CO2 release into the atmosphere causes global warming. There's actually a good book covering these two instances and others: "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke…

And a reverse example is that for 40 years, people thought low-fat diets were heart-healthy, and that turned out to be bad science.

Propagated by the sugar industry, which was a primary beneficiary.

Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#97
post #78

Sugar is not far from being a drug in my opinion. It certainly feels addictive and has a definite impact on physical and mental state (especially true with respect to children). In that sense, it should undergo the same level of regulation...

I'm all for eating way less sugar, but you might as well say people are addicted to food. The body needs energy, of course providing it with energy alters its physical and mental state.

[deleted]

Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#98
post #68
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no that's not true. current thinking is just that if you eat fruites and vegs that you probably don't eat so much that you can get sick. however when it comes to drinks (i.e. smoothies, apple juice, orange juice) we already know that they could be as worse as cola. (from a sugar perspective). fructose is as worse as sacarose for a human beign if you eat/drink too much of it. it is just worse in another way i.e. it ca…

no, really, current thinking is that whole fruit is better than juice or smoothies because blending releases the sugar, which is otherwise somewhat bound to the fibre. Of course, it's far easier to overconsume blended fruit, but there are studies showing an increased risk of t2 diabetes from drinking limited amounts of fruit juice, and over consumption isn't the whole story. https://www.nhs.uk/news/diabetes/fruit-may…

Right, fruit juice is definitely problematic since it completely removes the fibre. I only skimmed those articles but it seemed to be talking about juice, not e.g. smoothies where the fibre from the fruit is still present. If I make a smoothie from a packet of blueberries, I assume that gives more or less the same benefits as eating them.

Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#99
post #35

30–40 years later we might be saying the same thing about social media.

Probably not cancer, instead I’ll guess we’ll link it to the onset of serious mental diseases.

I think it's a proxy for our unwillingness or inability to tackle cognitive processing issues. Sometimes I talk about my mental health symptoms and people are 'well social media is making you ill,' but I have been struggling to articulate my cognitive difficulties to people since the 1970s. If I ever find myself with a large money surplus I would really like to spend some of it on MRIs or whatever sort of brain scan could help me figure out where my cognitive bottlenecks are.

Re: Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago

#100
post #78

Sugar is not far from being a drug in my opinion. It certainly feels addictive and has a definite impact on physical and mental state (especially true with respect to children). In that sense, it should undergo the same level of regulation...

I'm all for eating way less sugar, but you might as well say people are addicted to food. The body needs energy, of course providing it with energy alters its physical and mental state.

Yes but it causes an immediate spike in blood glucose levels, which if unused, is stored as fat. That's what makes it dangerous - people generally seem to consume sugar when it is least needed, making it especially detrimental.
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