Pathfinders: After the Sugar Rush

[ALB]

This will please Vin:https://twitter.com/SimonCapewell99/status/665799046209081344?lang=no

[PJShannon]

Following is a discussion on the page titled: Pathfinders: After the Sugar Rush.
Below is the discussion so far. Feel free to add your own comments!

[Anonymous]

encouraging @Soc_Standard is available as a twitter account 

[alanjjohnstone]

This story appeared in the Guardian and is a useful reminder of the suppression of sciencehttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin 

Quote:

If, as seems increasingly likely, the nutritional advice on which we have relied for 40 years was profoundly flawed, this is not a mistake that can be laid at the door of corporate ogres. Nor can it be passed off as innocuous scientific error. What happened to John Yudkin belies that interpretation. It suggests instead that this is something the scientists did to themselves – and, consequently, to us.

[Dave B]

I think there is some evidence and discussion etc that consuming sugar rich foods triggers the release of natural pleasure producing “opiates” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorphins eg http://www.livestrong.com/article/493981-eating-induced-endorphins/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3161588 http://www.three-peaks.net/annette/Processed-Sugar.htm Resulting from withdrawal and addiction reactions etc. But blaming everything on capitalism. If you believe it the quick cheap availability of the food type may only be part of the problem as compulsive consumption as with drug taking, alcohol etc may be just a reaction or ‘self medicating’ response to general social levels of stress which would be the more direct cause of the problem? I think the continuous consumption of sugary foods or snacking, just from an observation of behaviour perspective, looks like the response to stress. From an insiders perspective, I get access to some of the ‘soft drinks’ industry insider documents on this;  their complaint is that they have decided to pick on the drinks industry whilst ignoring the bigger culprit with the sugar tax on soft drinks. Whilst the bigger culprits are biscuits, chocolates and cakes etc. Where I work there are about 3 shared offices and every day there is a buffet of such voluntarily supplied material laid out for communal free access snack food. With a from each according to pay and to each according to need. Transiting workers are welcome to sample the product. Factory produced juice and drinks are free on site anyway or if you want to take stuff home they sell date coded error and under weights to staff for 10p a litre. But the cakes etc remain the most popular. Introducing the sugar tax is supposed I think to dissuade consumption using the price mechanism and to encourage the industry to increase the use of artificial sweeteners as a substitute. There maybe some 'merit' in this despite some safety concerns over artificial sweeteners. There are a range of potential more expensive candidates for more natural ‘artificial’ sweeteners which have been priced out for further development.  For the capitalist class in general there is the increasing cost of healthcare due to obesity and diabetes etc.  I don’t have biscuits and cakes in the house because I can’t control myself if they are there and can scoff a couple of packets in an hour if they are and the more I eat the more I want. But I don’t glug litres of juice all day at Willy Wonkers juice factory. Anyway now we have it when it costs the ruling class ; ‘stop them eating cakes’ And ‘chocolate is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.   http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2015/no-1335-november-2015/pathfinders-after-sugar-rush

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