I mean look what happened to "the war on fat", the sugar war will be no different. I feel that excess consumption of artificial sweeteners, salts or fats will be the next problem.
It's the same for climate change. People constantly think it's governments that need to fix climate change without making any of their own lifestyle changes to help address the issue.
Maybe you're right, but these markets exist because people buy these products. Coca-cola got to where it was today because people drank it by the kilolitre.
I've read that new research say, "Sugar is more addictive than cocaine." So does personal responsibility still apply?
What I've noticed is over the years more and more in stores 'food items' are things I absolutely will not buy.
Indeed. But when a poorly educated population with few alternatives ia actively marketed to[1], then perhaps the outcome is more a reflection of corporate exploitation than a reflection of informed consumer choices.
[1] http://www.lapoliticaeslapolitica.com/2013/03/in-mexico-coca...
The flip side is well paid professionals that come to work every day to work relentlessly to exploit weaknesses in peoples personal responsibility and consciousness.
I found it REALLY hard in modern society. I could do it as I am well off, but it is very difficult to eat cheaply and healthily.
Many people have appetites which lead to them only wanting to eat a healthy about of food. If you are like that, great! I, like many other people, do not. I'm hungry all the time and almost any food it is easy to get contains a huge amount of unfilling but tasty calories.
Word. It simply is impossible to eat cheaply and healthily. Cheap or even reasonably priced food is usually rubbish or requires so much cooking that the savings on the food itself are countered by the price of cooking it.
A good electric pressure cooker can cook things very efficiently. It's even better than a traditional pressure cooker because it's insulated. You can cook dried beans with it easily, and dried beans are cheap. It's good for rice too, which is also cheap. Add some frozen vegetables and eggs and you have a reasonably cheap and healthy diet.
Staying healthy solo is easy. Staying healthy as a family is hard.
Thinking about places like: Mexico, India, Sri-Lanka.
And really, the hardest part of eating well is definitely the cost, but also the knowledge (what I know today could have made college-me much more effective!).
How has that been working out so far?
I think it comes down to a certain healthy degree of (acquired) snobbery towards what you eat. If availability of food is no longer a concern, snobbery can very well take it's place! For example I could not imagine treating myself to eating a Hershey bar or Dunking donuts or whatever. Same as I wouldn't eat off the garbage bins behind a restaurant.
I guess there should be data on this (in relation to tobacco/ alcohol).
My personal biases tell me that people don’t have great self control. Shifting social norms, such that over-consumption is less socially acceptable might help. But that’s hard to do (and something different than education).
No. This has been beaten to death in dozens of studies going back to the 50s. Education does not trump brain chemistry.
> Shifting social norms, such that over-consumption is less socially acceptable might help.
It would help a lot, but food purity laws would help more. It would be nice if I could find a loaf of bread in a supermarket that didn't have HFCS in it.
www.wonderbread.ca
Not completely sure it's bread, though.
Regarding beard, curiously enough I’ve just started using a bread maker. Takes 5mins to setup in the evening and can be timed to have the bread ready when you wake up, recommend.
This is the key. We are social animals and we heavily regulate what we eat based on what other people eat.
But we have been socialised to avoid strong judgement of obese people.
Personally, I refuse to eat with obese friends unless they are actively trying to eat a healthy and well proportioned meal.
In the same way that I don't hang out with friends when they smoke.
Think about the difference in social response you will get if you admit you don't eat with obese people vs you won't sit at a table of smokers while they smoke!
But I don't care. I've been obese and I'm not going back.
I hope you understand that there are a lot of very intelligent people working at food companies who work on undermining people's self control and hooking children to their products. This is a losing battle for a lot of people.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower%27s_farewell_addr...
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.
Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together
...All while a few become unfathomably wealthy and powerful, and the rest move in the opposite direction. All while we fail to invest in infrastructure, quality education, and functional public health, mental health, and nutrition.
Edit: pop this into Google: war on sugar uk usa