Posts Tagged ‘sugar’

“That stuff can’t be good for you.” Diet soda is a fizzy elixir that people love to hate. And so this week, we have yet another round of studies and pseudo-scientific PR pitching “links” as evidence of cause and effect. The scare theme this week is artificial sweeteners will give you a stroke. The Study […]

Big sugar is on the move. Late yesterday, federal agents stopped a sugary terror plot. They seized suicide sugar bunnies aimed at millions of innocent children. Those bunnies were set to inflict maximum damage on a major religious holiday soon. “This amounts to chemical warfare,” said Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. “Those bunnies carry a load of pure, white, and […]

Change is afoot in the food supply. The last time we saw such sweeping changes, food makers responded to low-fat dietary guidelines by replacing fats in their products with carbs and especially sugar. Obesity took off and three decades later, the villain is sugar, not fat. In July 2018, Nutrition Facts labels will call out […]

The New York Times has a new food writer, Yotam Ottolenghi. In his first column for the Times, this British chef and author makes a radical confession about sugar: I rarely go a day without a bite or slice or square of something sweet. If it’s not cake, then it’ll be a cookie, a slice of […]

A new solution for obesity, proposed by Michael Goran and Emily Ventura, is floating through the opinion pages of newspapers all over the world. They say that we should wake up to risks of “secondhand sugars” for infants and young children. If we see a pregnant woman drink a soda, we should worry for the unborn […]

By any objective measure, our current obesity prevention strategies are failing. Former CDC Director Tom Frieden said it bluntly in JAMA this week. “There has been no progress in reducing childhood obesity.” The latest obesity statistics in Mexico show the problem is still growing. That’s true even though Mexico passed a tax on sugary drinks and highly […]

This week,  CDC released data showing that the steady decline in sugar-sweetened beverages, ongoing since 1999, has slowed. The reaction from some public health folks was hyperbolic. Big soda “causes carnage” and “cares nothing” about it, says Walter Willett. Comparisons to alcohol, tobacco, and guns flowed freely. Oddly enough, folks sounding these alarms did not acknowledge declining sugary […]

The French say “non.” No more free refills. As of last Friday, selling unlimited servings of sugary soft drinks for a fixed price is illegal in France. This move continues a steady path of measures intended to curb the rise of obesity there. In 2004, France banned vending machines from schools. In 2011, school cafeterias […]

Here’s an unusual comparison. It contrasts the value of two different options for childhood obesity: a tax on sugary beverages versus bariatric surgery for adolescents. Steven Gortmaker and colleagues published this analysis in Health Affairs. Gortmaker presented the data yesterday in Washington, DC. Calling this an apples and oranges comparison would be generous. The basis for this comparison has two dimensions. First […]

Labeling for added sugars is coming soon to nutrition facts labels. So yogurt makers are shedding sugar in their products. They want to keep that healthy halo they have enjoyed for so many years. Until now, the “low-fat” claim on their labels was enough. Even as many yogurts loaded up on sugar, consumers kept believing it […]