Okay, let me get this straight. According to the New York Times article I just read, in the 1960s, the Sugar Research Foundation paid three Harvard scientists to minimize the link between sugar and heart disease and to blame fat instead. Their whitewashed findings were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, which at that time did not even bother to ask scientists the following question: “Uh, who paid for your research?”
Last year, the Times reported that Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugar water and most popular promoter of adolescent tooth decay, gives millions of dollars to researchers who “play down the link between sugary drinks and obesity.”
Think about it. For decades, health professionals, relying on studies such as these, have been warning us to avoid fat. Being the health-conscious and trusting citizens that we are, we jumped on the “bad fat” bandwagon and started consuming “low-fat” foods, many of which have… AHEM.. lots of sugar .
Kudos to the clever sugar industry!
There are other suspicious indications that the sugar industry has enjoyed a strong influence on science of nutrition. The New York Times article also reports that one of these Harvard scientists went to work at the United States Department of Agriculture, “where in 1977, he helped draft the forerunner to the federal government’s dietary guidelines.”
Let me think… in 1977, practically every kid in America was eating Cap’n Crunch for breakfast because moms were feeling pretty good about fortifying their kids with “9 essential vitamins & minerals.” I know my mom never considered she could have saved money by scooping a few heaping teaspoons of white sugar into a bowl and pouring milk over it.
We all know what has happened over the last few decades. Everyone has gotten fatter. Today, National Institute of Health statistics show that more than two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. It’s not much better for children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents during the last 30 years. Obesity is not just a crisis. It’s an epidemic. Unfortunately, with obesity comes a whole lot of risk for other cruddy things like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
I’m going to fondly look back on that naïve time in my life (about 5 minutes ago) when I still believed that all scientists were the “good guys.” They were the ones who worked tirelessly to cure cancer, not cause it. How disappointing to know that some scientists directly contributed to the current health crisis by blessing our lifelong sugar addiction. I’ll never look at a bag of Domino’s sugar the same again.
Fat, it’s not your fault.
Sugar, you’re being used.
And thank you, New York Times, for ruining my day.
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