Limiting Sugar

In their 2012 article, "The Toxic Truth about Sugar," Lustig et al argue that sugar, like alcohol, ought to be regulated by governments due to the harm it can cause to individuals' health and the public good. Their argument, at first glance, appears to be highly logical and virtually unassailable: alcohol is regulated because it is bad for health and causes other problems for society, and so sugar which is the cause of much greater and more pervasive health problems and is also detrimental to the social and cultural fabric of the peoples of the world in a variety of ways involving the agricultural industry and global development should also be carefully regulated and controlled. The researchers cite actions taken in other countries along the same lines as a further justification of their call for more control when it comes to sugar content and consumption, and clearly spell out some of the concrete harms that increased sugar consumption has had and will have on the world's population, not just in developed/industrialized countries but in all countries adopting similar diets. This adds up to a very compelling picture of the threat that sugar specifically and "junk food" (calorie-dense and nutritionally-lacking consumables) generally constitutes to the world population.

This is a fact that is not only staggering, but also shocking that we’ve let this happen to the modern age what with all the technology that could perhaps help reduce this. Paragraph 3’s testimonial is in short order, the UN says that sugar is now in the same league of products as tobacco and alcohol, especially when consumed in large amount, can pose a serious health threat, however it is OK, but only if used in moderation.

Before I could focus on the sugar regulation, I first need to learn more about sugar and how sugar affects public health. I started by reading a scholarly article “Dangerous Sweet: The True Impacts of Sugar on Your Health,” from Rodale News, to give me a basic understanding of this problem. The author Isaac Eliaz, MD is an integrative medicine expert and the founder of the

Ultimately, the debate continues as to whether the US government should create strict sugar regulations or not. Sugar regulations should be enforced in order to decrease the rate of diabetes, risk of liver failures, and sugar addiction problems. These problems outright can ruin a person’s life, even leading to death. These problems give the necessary reason for the government to take action for a stricter sugar regulation for population

Throughout the years America has started to blame sugar for obesity, heart disease, etc. To an extent we can blame sugar. When someone eats too much or eats the processed chemical filled sugar it could have a negative impact on that person's health. For example: “[..] Chemical makeup enters the bloodstream more quickly than plain sugar.” (Richards). Processed sugar enters into the body and bloodstream much faster than natural sugar does. Which causes too much sugar build up in our bloodstream makes the insulin work harder to process it all out. Until the insulin does its job the sugar just floats around in the blood. We as people can blame sugar for all of our issues when a person eats too much sugar. “I do not support unbelievable amount of GMO high fructose corn syrup” (Konie). That is when heart disease and obesity come into play, when you personally consume too much.

Food consumption that is high in sugar has been linked with obesity rates, so in order to cut obesity rates we must avoid a heavy load of sugar intake. In order to understand why sugar is “trending” as something to avoid in our diet, here are some reasons why: sugar has been found to be poor for our metabolism and harmful to our health (Flegal). It contains no essential nutrients. Sugar is also high in fructose, which can essentially overload your liver. Sugar can also cause insulin resistance. This is something strongly correlated with obesity rates, which can also be associated with diabetes. So with sugars effects to insulin resistance, it can be a contributor to type II diabetes as well as other chronic diseases. A specific note of this diabetes influence sugar has comes for an analysis done on caloric consumption and diabetes. “When people ate 150 calories more every day, the rate of diabetes went up 0.1%. But if those 150 calories came from a can of fizzy drink, the rate went up 1.1%” (Lambert) showing that added sugar is eleven times more harmful within the same calorie

Sugar is a very common thing we can find in our modern world. It’s in the majority of what we eat, drink, and snack on. Convenience is its best friend, because it can be found anywhere we look. We can find it at our corner gas station, our local supermarket, favorite movie theater, and in our own homes. Sugar is so closely related to the obesity crisis, and is believed to be the number one reason obesity exists.

1. Jen Christensen’s article “New U.S. Dietary Guidelines Limit Sugar, Rethink Cholesterol” is about the 2015 recommended food guidelines set by the U.S.

It would be irresponsible to say, that I do not want government to regulate. By recognizing the practical realities of given situation, which is that sugar is added in almost everything and is now dedicated to a rise in chronic disorder like Pancreatitis, hypertension, cardiac dilation to name few of them. The article states

Children who consume large amounts of sugar are shown to be so much more susceptible to many harmful effects, so why don't we slow down the consumption? The short answer is money. If the food companies stop using cheap sugars, then they loose money. In turn, prices of more organic and healthy foods spike, and we have to pay more. Those with lower incomes often consume the most sugar because it's less expensive. It's like we have been hooked on this drug that we don't even realize is a drug.

It is challenging subject to determine whether government should have jurisdiction on sugar consumption to reduce obesity. In my perspective, government should provide alternative approach to regulate the use of sugar in the food that is consumed regularly. Legislation might interfere with the freedom of choices that public hold. FDA oversees and manages the food industry regulation for the safety of public. Information on the food labels are insignificant to read and comprehend at times if you are not careful. Moreover, some of the marketing claims may mislead the consumer. Long-term effect of sugar and fat intake can lead to obesity and chronic disease. However, effect of ingredients in the food is not labeled unlike drugs. Instead

Many individuals are capable of containing a healthy balance of sugar, and for those who don’t, they are aware of the consequences. Such as anything in society, there are given choices to what somebody is able to do to their body whether it is preferred or not. The only person that should be in control of his/her diet is himself because it is their right. In an article Freedom to Eat by Daren Bakst, he points out the majority of opinions of day to day people say, “living in a society where the government retains that much control over our choices isn’t worth the marginal benefit it may apply.” What someone consumes is his voluntary choice and should be respected by the

In the article “Added Sugars Labeling Proposal” by Bruce Silverglade, I agree with the author that the FDA should ditch the “Added sugar” labeling and follow Canada's proposal for labeling sugar. The reason I agree with Silverglade, is because Canada's proposal sounds more effective in helping people to understand how much sugar they should consume daily. Furthermore, the proposal also gives consumers a clearer idea of the amount of sugar used by grouping sugar based ingredients (Silverglade, 2015). Moreover, the FDA should look into Canada's proposal and think about following it.

In the new U.S. dietary guidelines they limit sugar and rethink cholesterol. They try to extract the sweet tooth for the first time, the government put a limit on sugar, saying added sugar should make up only 10% of your daily calories. These guidelines are based on Americans eating a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, 10% of that diet is roughly 50 grams of sugar.

Although the United States produces the fifth most amount of sugar, the amount of sugar farms (under 6,000) is a very small fraction of the 2.2 million farms in the United States. Therefore, these sugar farmers are producing an extremely large amount of sugar and making an extremely large amount of money. However, this is actually less than one percent of the cash receipts for all farmers in the United States. With this information, I do not believe that the US Sugar Policy is trying to hurt consumers purposefully strictly for the interest of sugar farmers.