Who is selling sugar to our children? by Robert R. Odle

The WHO (World Health Organization) released a report No.916 last year.  The report said among other things that we are eating twice as much sugar as we should be and that it is the number one cause of obesity in this country.   The WHO recommended less than 10% of our calories should come from free sugar added to our food by manufacturers.  In short, to be healthy in this country we need to reduce our sugar consumption by half.

Many expect the cost of treating obesity to bankrupt the American; by just 2018 the costs are predicted to go up by $344 billion.   It is a problem that is increasingly attacking our children, even infants.

So, one would think we would happy to get some news that pointed to the cause of this obesity.  Nope. The food corporations, especially the corn industry, was about to lose billions of dollars.  They got the lobbies together and threatened to remove $425 million of U.S. funding for the World Health Organization.  The U.S. Sugar association got their way and the language in the report was softened.

So, isn't the story that all calories are equal still true.  Not exactly.  When we eat sugar we get a burst of sugar into the bloodstream, the pancreas secretes insulin, and the liver converts that sugar into fat. Other foods like an apple or almonds have fiber which slows down the digestion process and the sugar is more slowly introduced in the blood stream and you use more of it as energy, less of it gets converted to fat.

So, what about the old story that fat people are not trying.  They eat too much and exercise too little. That may be true, but at high levels of consumption sugar becomes addictive. Some are even claiming that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.   While cocaine is not one of the more addictive drugs, and the statement is controversial, the stark rise in obesity in this country parallels the doubling of sugar in our diet since the mid-1970's when fat became the bad guy and food companies raised the sugar content to compensate for the bland taste of low fat foods.

So, why do we have corn-syrup in everything even though half of us are trying to avoid it. Because it is cheap to make.  And why is that ... because we subsidize agriculture.  We just stopped this year giving money to farmers to not grow crops, but instead agreed to pay the cost of  crop insurance, which insures the rich farmers make money no matter what happens with their crops.  What a deal.  The democrats tried to put in an exception that farmers that made over $750,000 in income were not eligible for free insurance, but Republicans pushed it through.  Of course, they compensated by decreasing the amount of food stamps to the poor.   But, I digress.

So why are Americans becoming more obese.  Because it makes food companies a lot of money. They are using the tactics of the tobacco companies, deny and lie. And eventually, we will wake up, but at what human cost.  Look up all the diseases caused by obesity and imagine the lives of all the obese children that are counting on us guide them.  The next time you look at a cereal box look for the % of daily nutritional requirement next to the sugar.  What you will see is nothing.  Have you ever asked why and who is responsible for that omission.  Do you think that is accidental?