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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

#231

Post by nopassrecover »

sluggg wrote: post #128
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't follow any particular diet, but most of my meals are vegetables and a small amount meat / fish / eggs / chicken. I find it quite affordable. I typically avoid buying anything processed, those items rapidly ruin my budget.

"I typically avoid buying anything processed, those items rapidly ruin my budget." ... what processed foods are on average considerably cheaper. Spam, hot dogs, bacon, deli meats, and the list goes on and on. Where do you shop? I am highly skeptical of your claims.

Depends where you live. Fresh food from an independent grocer is noticeably cheaper, fresher, longer-lasting, and tastier than any of the food (packaged or fresh) from major supermarkets here in Australia.

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

#232

Post by hutzlibu »

I am not sure, how appropriate this is, but a related question/poll:

there is the stereotype, that hackers/IT guys are in general fat/unhealthy.

But in my experience, this is not at all true. It might just be my circles of people (mostly germans around 30), but most of the IT guys I know, take good care of their body, eat healthy and do all kinds of sports. Even though some are now starting to get lazy, the overall picture for me is, that most are healthy, above average (compared to people of their age).

So I am curious, how the world is for other people here on HN?

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

#233

Post by Tsiklon »

buckminster wrote: post #123
jungletime wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, asbestos is all over the place in a lot of homes. Plus many locations also have Radon gas seeping in. These things are known about, but mostly ignored because of the cost to fix them.

Most Western countries have banned the use of asbestos so the problem isn't getting any worse. But not America! What's worse is that we've known about the dangers for more than 100 years.

Hang on, Asbestos is still used in America?

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

#234

Post by croon »

jeffdavis wrote: post #193
acdha wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s one of the members of the 1970s guidelines: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1977/01/20/... “Dr. Mark Hegsted, professor of nutrition at Harvard University and one of the three nutritionists who helped write the report, said: "There will undoubtedly be many people who will say we have not proven our point; we have not demonstrated that the dietary modifications we recommend will yield the divid…

I find it interesting why that doctor's reasoning is flawed: in reality, people don't just follow advice wholesale, they follow some of it based on how much willpower they have for change. By choosing some things to follow over others, they are implicitly making a trade-off. But to make a good trade, you need to know the relative benefits of two parts of the advice. Giving up fats might be good and/or neutral; but if…

> I find it interesting why that doctor's reasoning is flawed

I can't imagine a scenario where that cereal/grain recommendation in GP quote isn't sponsored or populistic at the time though.

And while their method/reasoning wasn't flawed if they indeed had no research opposing their recommendation, that's kind of a straw man from the main issue of avoiding fat being legitimately bad.

You need energy, and you get some from protein which you desperately need, but you can't get all your energy from protein, and that leaves you fats or carbs. Of those it's so much worse to avoid fat than carbs.

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

#235

Post by zaarn »

Joakal wrote: post #230
zaarn wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the cereal. The corn flakes I usually eat for breakfast have basically 0 nutritional value, I think the entire 1kg box contains about 800kJ, no sugar and the rest of that is then mostly air or filler.

https://www.kelloggs.com.au/en_AU/products/corn-flakes.html This is the most popular in Australia and it has sugar and salt. Which one doesn't have sugar?

I just pick my local store's brand. It's got the consistency and taste of wet cardboard but it gets me through the morning.

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

#236

Post by propelol »

hutzlibu wrote: post #232

I am not sure, how appropriate this is, but a related question/poll: there is the stereotype, that hackers/IT guys are in general fat/unhealthy. But in my experience, this is not at all true. It might just be my circles of people (mostly germans around 30), but most of the IT guys I know, take good care of their body, eat healthy and do all kinds of sports. Even though some are now starting to get lazy, the overall p…

People with higher education often take better care of their bodies. Here is my theory: A couple of decades ago, IT didn't require much education, because there weren't many schools doing IT. So many people without higher education worked in IT.

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

#237

Post by pygy_ »

richardknop wrote: post #217
pygy_ wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the food industry supposed to grow if we stop becoming more and more obese?

By focusing on healthy food with higher margin. That could cause people to eat less and be thinner and food companies would keep their revenues because margin would be higher (think free range eggs, chicken that lived outside in good conditions instead of horrible food factories where they are treated horribly).

I actually hope we get there :-) but it would mean that people would have to spend a higher share of their income on food.

When it comes to stripping people of their cash, the competition is fierce, and we humans are usually not very good at long term thinking.

Guilt- and shame-based marketing is not very effective (boasting health/societal benefits is indirectly guilt tripping people), less than hey look at this shiny $product that would make you sooo cool among your peers. Shiny! Buy now! And don't get me started on addiction-based products, like junk food (or screen-based products, be them games or serial TV shows).

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

#238

Post by bazoiks »

e9 wrote: post #211
ovao wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t quite follow. Peanuts and macadamia nuts have the same amount of sugar per one cup serving, so on what basis are you avoiding peanuts?

Peanuts are composed mostly of polyunsaturated fat (mostly omega 6 and very low omega 3) and macademia nuts are mostly monounsaturated fats. If you care about your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio in the diet then macademia nuts are probably better for you.

> If you care about your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio

I'm not sure you're going to find many other humans that do. Seriously - there's more important things to care about.

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

#239

Post by hutzlibu »

propelol wrote: post #236
hutzlibu wrote: post #232

I am not sure, how appropriate this is, but a related question/poll: there is the stereotype, that hackers/IT guys are in general fat/unhealthy. But in my experience, this is not at all true. It might just be my circles of people (mostly germans around 30), but most of the IT guys I know, take good care of their body, eat healthy and do all kinds of sports. Even though some are now starting to get lazy, the overall p…

People with higher education often take better care of their bodies. Here is my theory: A couple of decades ago, IT didn't require much education, because there weren't many schools doing IT. So many people without higher education worked in IT.

I would go more with, a lot of sad, fat kids at home, discovered the world of computers, where they could shine, because nobody cared how they looked in the real world, it only mattered what they could do. And this stereotype definitely still exists, I would be curious, how many of the HN crowd fit into it, but I can understand, that nobody wants to out himself like that.

edit: and I believe every fat person, knows and knew, that being fat is bad, but when you are sad and eating is your allmost only joy, what can you do? Starving and give up that little bit of happiness?

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

#240

Post by s4vi0r »

nlperguiy wrote: post #52
jacek wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an interesting book on this topic that discusses both how it happened and what that does to our brains and bodies - "The Hacking of the American Mind" by Robert Lustig [1]. The book also is about other ways our brain is affected by a substance or behavior, but mostly about sugar. I highly recommend it. [1] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/531013/the-hacking-...

Robert Lustig is a quack although. Many of the things he said in his famous online talk are outright lie. He gave an example of Japanese and their healthiness, yet they eat way more fructose than the USA citizen he cites. There's a whole other bunch of misinformation in his speech and his studies are filled with flawed design (no control group, p hacking etc.).

Why is it that he's so popular on HN? Did I miss a recent front page post or something?

I swear every time I'm in a nutrition related thread I see somebody mention his name or a book he wrote or talk he did. I used to be pretty deep into weightlifting and nutrition, and I don't know that I ever once ran into his name in all my reading, and I spent a stupid amount of time reading about macro + micro nutrients.

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