Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

corporateeurope.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 176 posts

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#131

Post by chillwaves »

clearlyclear wrote: post #96
tdkl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just evil, I presume in the future there will be civil wars because of that - people who'll have enough vs. corporations.

I'm cutting past the corporation talk and going straight to the premise. It's one that we need to reject. The article starts off with the premise that we are currently suffering a health crisis. This is insane. It's an extreme, hyper-negative point of view. We live in the safest times in all of human history. If you're not living in a shanty town without running water and suffering from dysentery, you're doing pretty…

And how do you feel about people who "choose" to smoke? Even when doctors said it was safe?

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#132

Post by josinalvo »

Kenji wrote: post #120
yodsanklai wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what point of view libertarians have on issues like this one. How can we regulate this without government intervention? what can we do to counter-balance the marketing power of those corporations?

My libertarian view: Let companies add as much sugar as they like and consumers shall decide what tastes and feels best. If there's too much sugar inside your food, nobody's gonna buy it. Not the government should decide how much sugar I eat, I should decide that. Everything else infantilizes the people. The only thing that should be illegal is actually lying about sugar content.

lying and non-disclosing?

of just lying?

because every sugar product conceivable can be 'part of a nutritious breakfast' without any lying (but misleading a lot of people)

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#133

Post by maxerickson »

mattzito wrote: post #114
maxerickson wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, plain yogurt would show any added sugar in the ingredients list (it would not reflect the amount). But it starts from milk, so there is lots of sugar it in.

There has been new legislation passed that starting..next year?..labels will have to show total sugar and added sugar, so you can realistically get a sense of how much is original vs. additive.

Yeah I get that, it's just that you can already tell if something like plain yogurt has added sugar or not. In my experience, most brands list milk and the bacteria cultures.

I guess varying the preparation of the yogurt can still result in a wide range of sugar content.

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#134

Post by hippich »

bhouston wrote: post #83
coldcode wrote: post #13

I despise the corn lobby more. They ensure the high tariffs on imported sugar in order to protect the corn prices to produce corn syrup instead of using raw sugar. Only the US has soft drinks made with HFCS simply because of the tariff on imported sugar.

Accord to the movie Sugar Coated (on Netflix here in Canada) and Dr. Lustig there is no meaningful difference between HFCS and normal sugar -- they are equally quite bad for you. Switching from HFCS to cane sugar will achieve nothing I believe if you keep the sugar intake the same. What I believe happened is that at the same time HFCS came on the market there was also a larger push to put sugar into a lot of things i…

weight-wise sugar has only half of fructose, and fructose is main offender. So yes, too much sugar is bad, but if you compare gram to gram, fructose is worse.

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#135

Post by superswordfish »

forgetsusername wrote: post #97
superswordfish wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US sugar is listed without a DV% as well. People might reconsider a Milky Way if they knew it had 70% of your daily recommended added sugar intake (per the article's 45g). I LOLed at https://www.milkywaybar.com/nutrition > MILKY WAY® is a delicious and indulgent treat that can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. Why lie? It's heavily-processed, high-fat, high-sugar candy. Of course it'…

> Why lie? It's heavily-processed, high-fat, high-sugar candy What part of claiming to be able to enjoy a chocolate bar if you eat otherwise healthy is a "lie"? It's only "unhealthy" in the context of your overall diet.

Would you say marmalade is healthy? It's certainly tasty. It has calories so in the context of starvation, it's absolutely healthy. What's so tacky about this is that there are only cynical reasons to discuss manifestly unhealthy candy in the context of a balanced diet. A candy bar has zero value in a balanced diet, like marmalade.

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#136

Post by tapan_k »

praptak wrote: post #58

About 6 weeks ago I stopped ingesting sugar, to the extent that is practically possible. No candy & cakes, no sweet drinks and very diligent reading of labels on the non-obvious stuff. I do eat fruit but not processed into juice. Dropped 4 kg, everything tastes better, no energy drop at 4pm and the cravings disappeared within first two days. Friends report similar results. This was also much easier than my previous a…

Last year, I started taking LCHF lifestyle [0] seriously. The primary influence was Prof Tim Noakes [1] and his relentless tweets about how sugar is at the root of widespread obesity, and the diseases associated with obesity. I stopped having sugar and carbohydrate rich food, and my weight dropped rapidly. I went from being heaviest in my life to 10kg lighter in a span of 6 months. And I felt great.

Now I know the secret sauce of weight loss, and feeling great at the same time, but the only thing that knocks me off this diet and lifestyle is stress. When under work related stress, I end up eating carbohydrate rich food which results in quick weight gain. I am in the process of figuring out a way to stay on LCHF because I long to going back to the feeling that I have experienced while on LCHF.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet

[1]: https://twitter.com/ProfTimNoakes

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#137

Post by chillwaves »

maxerickson wrote: post #88
fsloth wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not enabling sovereign countries to protect industry of their choosing is a form of corporate protectionism. The established companies are protected from future competitors. Example: south koreas industry was bootstrapped by the government using every mean at their disposal - using methods that would probably be improbable in our present form global market. No Samsung, Lg or any of that could arise in current global…

What's your point? Trade agreements are voluntary. If a country thinks it's better off outside a given trade agreement, it can just leave it behind. They usually even have an explicit provision for withdrawal. For instance: http://www.sice.oas.org/trade/nafta/chap-22.asp So could South Korea use protectionism to build up internal industries today? Sure. But it might not want to, if a different set of choices were mor…

> Trade agreements are voluntary. If a country thinks it's better off outside a given trade agreement, it can just leave it behind.

Completely dismisses the complex reality of how decisions are made within a country. It's possible, even likely, that a system exists that represents the will of a few who benefit over the majority who suffer.

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#138

Post by azdle »

amelius wrote: post #101
praptak wrote: post #58

About 6 weeks ago I stopped ingesting sugar, to the extent that is practically possible. No candy & cakes, no sweet drinks and very diligent reading of labels on the non-obvious stuff. I do eat fruit but not processed into juice. Dropped 4 kg, everything tastes better, no energy drop at 4pm and the cravings disappeared within first two days. Friends report similar results. This was also much easier than my previous a…

Yes dropping sugar is the first step. But then after a while, you want to take it further, and you start exercising. And suddenly, you need sugars again!

Anecdotally, I completely disagree. I've been eating a ketogenic diet (less than ~20 net grams per day) almost exclusively since May 2013 and have been lifting for the last 8 months and haven't needed for any carbs. While it's possible after a certain level some well-timed carbs can help you lift heavier than without, those won't be the kinds of sugars most people are eating. But, since I'm not looking to become a body builder I'll probably never need to worry about that.

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#139

Post by chillwaves »

jahnu wrote: post #109
danthewireman wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried cutting out more carbs? Dropping bread, pasta, rice, and white potatoes helped me a lot.

You probably just reduced your calorie intake. There is scant evidence that those sources of carbs matters at all in the sense that they are somehow worse than other sources of calories. But fair play to you for doing something. It's genuinely admirable.

One type of macro food group affects insulin resistance. Carbs. All calories are not created equal, just ask any diabetic (and there are many many of them to ask).

Re: How the food lobby fights sugar regulation in the EU [pdf]

#140

Post by chillwaves »

amelius wrote: post #101
praptak wrote: post #58

About 6 weeks ago I stopped ingesting sugar, to the extent that is practically possible. No candy & cakes, no sweet drinks and very diligent reading of labels on the non-obvious stuff. I do eat fruit but not processed into juice. Dropped 4 kg, everything tastes better, no energy drop at 4pm and the cravings disappeared within first two days. Friends report similar results. This was also much easier than my previous a…

Yes dropping sugar is the first step. But then after a while, you want to take it further, and you start exercising. And suddenly, you need sugars again!

Why do you need sugars?
Post reply on HN