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America’s losing battle against diabetes

reuters.com

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Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#31

Post by valenterry »

post_break wrote: post #3
NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Stop taxing everything. Tax is not the solution for everything. The people buying soda are generally the poor or middle class. All this does it take more money from those who need it the most. What we need to do is regulate how much sugar you can put into foods. But we can't do that. We have to prop up the corn industry with subsidies. Sugar and HFCS is in literally everything. By adding a sugar tax you're basically…

> What we need to do is regulate how much sugar you can put into foods.

How about we first find out what actually causes diabetes. Not what correlates with it, but what really causes it. And then how we can stop that.

You can tax or forbid sugar all you want, but is it gonna stop diabetes? Will people who eat tons of other "empty carbs" really not get diabetes?

I'm not so sure. Instead of restricting peoples lifes, I would much rather opt for giving them opportunities. Such as providing discounts for gyms or other ways of working out.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#32

Post by oxymoran »

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

It’s not just sugar though, it’s junk, processed, and fast food in general. It’s astonishing how bad our current nutritional advice is.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#33

Post by slownews45 »

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

No question - but there is so much special interest tied into things like climate change that there is no will to actually solve it.

We've got now the hydrogen thing (aka fossil fuel with a ton of steps before you actually run an electric motor). We're going to have billions in special interest for this in the dems new bill.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ese3.956

We've got the ethanol thing

https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?dirEntr...

I could go on endlessly.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#34

Post by collaborative »

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Everyone talks about sugar. But the real problem is food culture (or the lack of). American, and now many European diets now consist of either fast food, oven-ready food or fried food. I recently went shopping and had a look at the "healthy" aisle. I could only find supposedly healthy food consisting of extremely savory dishes -carbonara, paella, etc. This is no way to eat healthy

In many western countries, no one is willing to eat a plate of barely seasoned boiled potatoes, or of barely seasoned pulses, etc

Everything is meaty, savory, rich.

Edit: I see I caused a reaction. I will explain. We are training our taste, and our children's tastes, to expect an explosion of flavor in every bite. This is not healthy. It promotes ordering take-out food, buying ready-meals, etc. Food doesn't need to be complex. We have fallen to "recipe book" diets. For example, I am mediterranean. When I read mediterranean recipe books, I see the same meals we eat, but turbo-charged with flavor. You can see the same thing in Chinese take-outs, where you will rarely see the owner eat the loaded meals he sells. He'll sautee some bean sprouts and mix them with boiled rice

Our stomachs aren't nuclear reactors, but in the western world, they are trained to be

Recipe book meals are ok to eat twice a week. The rest of the week should include steamed veggies with olive oil and salt, boiled apple puree, lentil soup, chick peas with carrots, mash with cabbage and til, leek and potato cream, etc

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#35

Post by nitwit005 »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #8
NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

So, a giant corporation outsources their production to china, pays zero carbon tax, and still pollutes the same planet, but Johnny average cannot heat his house and drive his car, because he cannot afford it anymore?

You just lower other taxes proportionally, and if Johnny average is actually average, he'll see little difference.

Putting tariffs on Chinese goods isn't exactly an unpopular idea either.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#36

Post by mdbug »

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Sugar does not cause diabetes.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#37

Post by amalcon »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #8
NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

So, a giant corporation outsources their production to china, pays zero carbon tax, and still pollutes the same planet, but Johnny average cannot heat his house and drive his car, because he cannot afford it anymore?

The usual solution to this is import tariffs for goods coming from any country that doesn't have a similar carbon tax (where such tariff goes away if and when it does happen), and to distribute the revenue from these to offset heating and transportation costs.

Economists have studied Pigovian taxes a lot. There are answers to most of the obvious objections (and answers to those answers, and so on). I happen to think most of macroeconomics is pseudoscientific nonsense. Unfortunately, in cases like this, pseudoscientific nonsense is the best we have.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#39

Post by [deleted] »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #8
NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

So, a giant corporation outsources their production to china, pays zero carbon tax, and still pollutes the same planet, but Johnny average cannot heat his house and drive his car, because he cannot afford it anymore?

[deleted]

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#40

Post by ahnick »

post_break wrote: post #3
NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Stop taxing everything. Tax is not the solution for everything. The people buying soda are generally the poor or middle class. All this does it take more money from those who need it the most. What we need to do is regulate how much sugar you can put into foods. But we can't do that. We have to prop up the corn industry with subsidies. Sugar and HFCS is in literally everything. By adding a sugar tax you're basically…

It will teach people to eat things with less sugar. It's behavior modification via people's pocketbook. If you appropriated all funds derived from a sugar tax back into health care funding for people below a certain AGI, then it is probably a great way to improve health outcomes.
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