4 ms·

I'm completely sold on the sugar argument. It's a home-run. Sugar is the new smoking. Our food environment makes it difficult to minimize sugar, but it's an ext

by AlanSE 5y ago

I'm completely sold on the sugar argument. It's a home-run. Sugar is the new smoking. Our food environment makes it difficult to minimize sugar, but it's an extremely straightforward rule, and you will join an rapidly increasing number of people who are on the crusade. I asked the question about fat, because I accept that chronic disease in developed nations does have other components. Exercise is similar to sugar, in that it's quite difficult to work into our lives, but it's a simple and obviously worthwhile rule. With fat, on the other hand, it feels like people are all over the place. Nonetheless, there are bad fats. I don't know what "bad fats" are scientifically, but I'm pretty sure potato chips have them.

kwhitefoot 5y ago
The US has a worse version of this problem than most other western countries. When I used to visit the US on business I found it quite difficult to buy food in the supermarkets because the list of ingredients on even the simplest items had items that I had never heard of or that I could not understand the need for. The other thing that bothered me was that quantity in many restaurants similar places seemed to be regarded as more important than quality. I went into a grocery store once while out riding a bicycle to get some water. I picked a bottle that seemed to be water but which turned out to be sickly sweet even though it had no sugar. Don't get me wrong, some of the best food I have ever eaten was in US restaurants. I think the only solution is to bring up children without junk food. But I have no idea how that can be achieved. I had my family with me once and we visited a colleague's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Our host's wife was rather taken aback when my three children asked for water instead of soda, and all three of them found the food far too sweet. Mind you things are changing here too, when we moved here over thirty years ago one never saw a seriously overweight person. Now it is moderately common.

by AlanSE 5y ago

kwhitefoot 5y ago

The US has a worse version of this problem than most other western countries. When I used to visit the US on business I found it quite difficult to buy food in the supermarkets because the list of ingredients on even the simplest items had items that I had never heard of or that I could not understand the need for. The other thing that bothered me was that quantity in many restaurants similar places seemed to be regarded as more important than quality. I went into a grocery store once while out riding a bicycle to get some water. I picked a bottle that seemed to be water but which turned out to be sickly sweet even though it had no sugar. Don't get me wrong, some of the best food I have ever eaten was in US restaurants. I think the only solution is to bring up children without junk food. But I have no idea how that can be achieved. I had my family with me once and we visited a colleague's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Our host's wife was rather taken aback when my three children asked for water instead of soda, and all three of them found the food far too sweet. Mind you things are changing here too, when we moved here over thirty years ago one never saw a seriously overweight person. Now it is moderately common.