Slight difference is that most parents don't give children cigarettes at the age of 2...
Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
91–100 of 261 posts
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then it should be fine to ban it, right?
No. Bureaucracy hell is bad as well. The least amount of rules that can keep us on the sane path the better. I'm for ban, but I can't even find any sources saying it had no effect (or the opposite). Anyone can help?
I'd be fine to wrap it into the existing smoking ban, hopefully resulting in not much more bureaucracy.
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#93How about we just let people choose what to do with their body?
As a kid my parents didn't care too much about what I ate. I regularly had sweets of any kind as a kid. I certainly have no addiction to sugar because of that. I probably drink soda less than once a month and have cake/ice cream/chocolate/candy at about the same frequency. Meanwhile, people I grew up with who were never allowed sugar seem much more addicted to it, eating sweets with every meal or as a snack. Earlier this week I heard someone at work talking about how their child has never eaten any kind of sweets before and personally this just sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Didn't we try that with prohibition?
The Scandinavian countries show that if you do not prohibit completely, but just make people jump through some hoops to get it and/or make it very expensive, it sort of works.
I think Swedes just end up buying more when visiting systembolaget. And students buy van loads on road trips to Germany.
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#95God I hope so. I grew up obese and am now about halfway through undoing the damage using a ketogenic diet. I really do think sugar sweetened drinks should be banned for sale to children under 18, as that causes the most damage.
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I distinctly recall these (and much more restrictive) measures having been tried in the U.S. almost exactly 100 years ago, to a very modest success. Sugar seems to be an easier target, because there are sweeteners like aspartame. Alcohol almost by definition doesn't have a healthy replacement.
Cannabis.
Cannabis is not healthy.
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks but no thanks. I'm a moderate consumer of wine and I just love it. It's good for health, it supplements food in a great way, it rarely gets you drunk and it tastes great. Sure, if you can't hold your liquor eventually it will kill but so will do everything you eat or drink if you consume it in great quantities.
A small amount of wine has been shown in small scale studies to have a moderate health benefit (though it's possible that's due to economic factors), most wine users consume far more wine than was studied. Enjoy your drugs, but don't kid yourself that you are consuming bacteria excrement for your health.
Yeast are fungi.
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exercise is important especially for your brain but bad nutrition has a much higher impact than no exercise.
Out of curiosity, how did you become so knowledgeable about nutrition? This comment, and your other (now deleted) comment make it seem like you are really confident that you know more than everyone else. My biggest complaint about learning about nutrition is that everyone says opposing things, and it is really difficult for me to know what is right and what is snake oil. Any tips on learning the “right” way to be hea…
Moderation and diversification seems to be a good hedge for a healthy portfolio.
That and also cooking more at home, be in contact with your food is a way to eat simpler and for me that is key.
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exercise is important especially for your brain but bad nutrition has a much higher impact than no exercise.
Out of curiosity, how did you become so knowledgeable about nutrition? This comment, and your other (now deleted) comment make it seem like you are really confident that you know more than everyone else. My biggest complaint about learning about nutrition is that everyone says opposing things, and it is really difficult for me to know what is right and what is snake oil. Any tips on learning the “right” way to be hea…
[deleted]
Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
For most people, alcohol isn’t addictive in the same way that smoking or sugar is. If you eat stuff with a lot of sugar it makes things without sugar actually taste worse. Whereas drinking alcohol doesn’t make water taste worse or whatever. Also alcohol only kills 80k or so Americans per year, way less than smoking or sugar.
Is there any reliable source to back up the claim that sugar is more addictive than alcohol? I am suspicious about this claim because there are plenty of people and families ruined directly as a result of alcoholism. I don’t think sugar addiction is causing nearly as much trouble as alcoholism, despite being a more widely consumed and easily available substance.
The number of "Obese People" far outweighs the number of chronic alcoholics... we are talking about almost 1/3rd of the population being obese (i.e. not just a bit fat, or chubby, just straight out obese).