Sugar, Sugar
By: Lucas Kehs
Tags: Health, Sugar, Diabetes, Corruption

Sugar, Sugar

I used to find the phrase knowledge is power to be cliché, until I saw the world in different colors. To learn something new is to assume the opportunity to bring positive change to your life, and prevent negative change from intersecting it. With each new piece of information we absorb, our mind is constantly adapting (short-term) and evolving (long-term). Knowledge, however, is limited in its usefulness if not put to use in our own lives. That means taking action to make the right decisions when we’re presented with tough choices. When I learned of the untaught health risks of sugar, my mind had no choice but to take notice. All of a sudden almost unconsciously, I began reaching for the bottle of water rather than the can of soda. There wasn’t much of a choice to make once I learned what soda was doing to my body. That is the choice that multi-million dollar sugar corporations don’t want you to make — the educated one. Two years later I’m ninety pounds lighter with energy levels incomparably higher than any years past. What I didn’t expect to learn in the process though, was how the industry kept the truth from my eyes, because the only way I would remain a consumer is if I never learned the truth. The only way to cover up the truth is to hide it in plain sight. And the only way they can achieve that is through institutional bribery in all facets of society.

There are a lot of things that go on in our country without us the citizens knowing. Although many have heard the term, not many know what it really means; lobbying is the first example of bribery in America. Lobbying plays a critical role in how the sugar industry is able to conduct itself. Without the government’s help, they couldn’t change nutrition labels or achieve many of the other legal loopholes they’ve constructed. I’m calling for a numerical cap on lobbying to limit the amount of money companies and corporations can give to members of government. Lobbying is just a political form of bribery, it doesn’t accomplish anything in terms of efficiency for this country. The best way to end institutional bribery in our country is to eliminate it from one platform at a time, beginning with the government. Institutional bribery has been happening for decades behind closed doors, and if we want to solve our problems we have to face the facts.

Institutional bribery isn’t a term thrown around lightly, but the industry has left breadcrumbs for us to follow. Beginning with science, sugar corporations have combined to fund and sponsor false or skewed data about sugar to combat truthful and accurate experiments concerned of the health risks associated with it. But they never make it too obvious, because someone reading this themselves might be one of millions falsely led to believe that fat, gluten and other food ingredients are the source of weight-gain and other internal health issues. When people see other components of food as the issue, the industry’s profits continue to climb. By funding research suggesting other components of food to be the villain it keeps sugar out of the spotlight, and when it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. Because we all know sugar is bad for us, it’s just that no one ever bothered to mention how bad. So when there’s something credible published about the alarming health risks of sugar the industry might respond with two articles of it’s own downplaying them, along with a few more about why fat is making people gain weight. They do this because they can afford to. It makes the average person wonder why one article they find on the internet says sugar is bad, but two more say it only has a very minor effect on health; then continue on to find other articles about the health consequences of things like gluten or fat with nothing credible to discredit it, so they see these false answers as the problem with their diet. I would draw comparisons to this type of scientific corruption with the global warming debate. Some things are impossible to deny, but if large oil companies see their profits threatened by the truth of science they’d be better off creating confusion amongst a population and blaming other causes rather than allowing a consensus to rise, forcing them to change their ways. The sugar industry has acted no different, creating confusion amongst our society so that we may never come to learn the truth and consequences regarding sugar.

In a 2015 documentary called Sugar Coated, the film approaches the debate about sugar from a consumer standpoint. It dissects the business side of what has happened, and why. More importantly, how we’ve allowed it to happen. The answer is slowly overtime. Today, 73% of items in your average grocery store have added sugar. But how could this be true? It turns out sugar now has fifty-six different names available on nutrition labels like sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin and others. If everyone knew how bad sugar was for their body in overconsumption nobody would stand for it. But since it has been around for ages, no one seems to take its negative affects seriously.

Our current statistics about sugar tell exactly how we’ve regressed as a country. In a graph showing the rise of sugar in the average American’s diet, we can see a very sharp incline over the last few decades. Additionally, Type 2 Diabetes has been steadily increasing in each individual state of our country; as explained by the hyperlinked graph. It’s clear the two show a correlation, with a sharp increase in sugar consumption one can expect the same result from our nation’s Type 2 Diabetes rate. Unfortunately diabetes is only one of the many consequences known to arise in someone who eats too much sugar. Fed Up is a 2014 Netflix documentary, describing the underlying causes of childhood obesity. What is first addressed in the film is the stance taken on obesity in general in the United States, which has led millions of kids and adults to believe in the wrong solutions. It is said that with enough exercise, anyone can work their weight off. There is truth to this statement, but it’s been overblown in order to keep the truth of the epidemic in the shadows. It is quoted in the film that one order of medium french fries at McDonald’s would take the average person one hour and twelve minutes of swimming to keep the added weight off. Consumption of a 20 oz Coca-Cola would require one hour and fifteen minutes of biking to work that energy off. So although sugar’s effect on our physical appearance is appalling, its effect on other crucial parts of our body is even more concerning.

Sugar’s effect on the brain is another important aspect to consider. In another section of the film, they cite a study conducted by Princeton University comparing the addictions of cocaine to sugar on lab mice. All of the mice were addicted to both, but in each case the large majority of mice chose the sugar water over the cocaine water. In MRI brain scans, it’s clear that sugar and cocaine cause a reaction in the same part of the brain; the result is an immense release of dopamine. Dopamine is the “happy” chemical released in our brains when we laugh, when we smile, and even when we’re exposed to sunlight; which is why everyone’s always in such a noticeably better mood on a nice sunny day. When dopamine is unnaturally released by taking drugs, drinking alcohol or eating too much sugar, our brain overproduces it and makes us feel happy no matter what is going on around us. Then, when sugar’s effects wear off, dopamine production is reduced for some time afterwards to essentially cool down from being overused. That is called a hangover, but it comes in many forms ranging widely. When you’ve eaten too many cookies or drink too much soda you’ll feel great in the moment, but you are bound to have a stomach ache and you’ll feel like shit an hour or two after indulging. If someone is consistently clogging their brain with sugar, the effects within can be just as concerning as the likely weight gain to follow.

Today you can virtually achieve any body you want to see with enough effort. Dieting is the one of the biggest building blocks to that shapeshifting ability. If you want to gain muscle and weight to become bigger and stronger, stock up on proteins and good fats. For some of us, a diet is meant to cleanse the inside of the body rather than the outside with foods like fruits and vegetables. Processed sugar happens to be one of the ingredients in foods that can pollute us internally, if not used in moderation. When I first decided I wanted to lose weight in high school I tried everything mainstream commercial television told me would work, but none of them actually did. I might’ve lost five or six pounds throughout nearly a year of these recommended routines. It was only when I decided to do my own research that I realized what was wrong with my diet: sugar. After two years of sticking to the diet my own independent research brought me to, I lost ninety pounds. All I did was cut sugar, and lower my selection of bread, pasta and other starches from my diet. Yes, it is undeniable that exercise is healthy in many ways, but you can’t expect that to be the sole solution to an obesity crisis. Shifting the blame to other ingredients like fat and gluten only prolongs and worsens our condition. The only way to inform the people is to educate them. But there’s a well covered secret surrounding another one of our most trusted institutions that has prevented that from happening.

America enjoys boasting many of its well known advantages around the globe, like our economic power, our technological advancement, and our prestigious collegiate universities. What if I told you many of our institutions have a price tag? Might you believe me if I cited the hundreds of millions of dollars sugar companies have donated to the “Harvard University School of Nutrition and Health” starting in 1952? You might not have heard, but the health consequences of sugar have been studied and documented since the 1930’s. The risks associated were clear to anyone who studied it even at the time. Unfortunately the studies that have been promoted at Harvard and many other American colleges for decades have been the ones that undermined sugar’s health impacts. The trickle effect of this has led to a largely ignorant population unaware of the threats posed to individual health by sugar including tooth decay, heart attack, hypertension, and diabetes. Our diabetes rates are on the rise as well as obesity mortality. People are quite literally killing themselves with the sugar they consume. There is never just one aspect to blame, but sugar has been held largely unaccountable for its health risks because of the influence money can buy. By essentially bribing our nation’s schools, they’ve portrayed a skewed view of science to some of our smartest up and coming students. When they control our teachers, they control our future. People paying for an education deserve a truthful one. Money should never influence the way anything is taught.

The root of a lot of problems in the world today all seem to have one thing at stake in common — money. An essential part of our country that seems unable to reject money is our government. Large corporations and donors of all sorts including the sugar industry buy the ear of some of the highest positions of authority an American citizen can hold in this country. The result is direct political and legislative influence. Sugar companies particularly lobby to loosen restrictions on nutrition labels and combat attempts to regulate anything, including their false studies on sugar. Knowing this, the only way information becomes knowledge is by taking the necessary actions that adhere to it. To make the tough choice and put what we know to use. If we know it’s happening why should we let it continue? Just like I decided years ago that I didn’t need sugar anymore, I’ve decided that the best way to end bribery in our government is to eliminate lobbying. Lobbying checks should have a reasonable capped maximum, to be decided, that allows politicians to truly weigh their best options for the country not their next campaign. Right now there are no laws in place to limit money that can used to lobby any government official. It’s obvious that if we can reduce the role money plays in government, the average hard working American will have a more equal say in what goes on in Washington. Not only will this limit the sugar industry’s influence, it would hopefully bring light to some of the other issues we’ve been neglecting for too long.