Is the war on sugar justified?

podcasts
(David) #1

Saw this in my podcast download list. Haven’t listened yet, but I’m pretty sure the answer is yes.

(David Driver) #2

Any time I hear the phrase “War on” with anything [drugs, poverty, heart disease, adult illiteracy]" it is an immediate signal that the person writing or speaking is trying to get an emotional response rather than an intellectual response. It is easier to manipulate emotions that it is win an argument based on the facts.

In most cases I tend to just ignore it because I refuse to be emotionally manipulated. BUT this episode of freakonomics is well reasoned and insightful.

We don’t need a war on sugar. We need quality research and an educated population. The people that want to be well will be well.

And I love the freakonomics podcast. I have been with them since the first episode. I like it much better than I liked the books. The books came off as crass to many people but in the podcast they come off as nice guys.

(Keto in Katy) #3

This is key. I think people do want to be well but there is so much conflicting information. Which sources are reliable and unbiased? How does the average person know what to do?

Many of us are nutrition geeks and we like to know the science, but most people just aren’t like that and look to whatever “authority” figure they happen to trust (mostly MDs, I guess).

(Clare) #4

Got to say, I listened to this and found myself underwhelmed by the fence sitting.
Always nice to hear Lustig doing his schtick though - although I got the feeling they edited him down a bit - he was fairly mild.
Next week’s sounds more interesting - the raw foodists are getting it.

(David Driver) #5

That’s kind of what Freakonomics does on their controversial stories. They throughly cover both sides of an idea and let the listener decide. They recently did a few stories on garenteed basic income and while most economist oppose the idea they actually gave it complete coverage. As a result I am not as completely against the idea as I was at one point.

(Jo Lo) #6

It strikes me as highly contrived and unscientific. They are looking for clash and argument between authorities, which is easy to find. But where does it leave us? They guide the whole discussion by cherry picking short quotes, totally out of context. Hence they impose their bias.

This is simply a strange attempt at entertainment, IMHO.

(Clare) #7

I enjoyed the book but this was just ’ people disagree '.

Hey ho.

(Brent Evans) #8

A lot of motivated reasoning going on there. Yeah, people quitting smoking is definitely the cause of the obesity epidemic. Why is it so hard for the former head of the Diabetes Association to admit that processed carbs and sugar are the main driver of the obesity and Diabetes epidemics?

(Clare) #9

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

(David Driver) #10

This should be a t-shirt, a mug, a keychain fob, sobriety token, bumper sticker, and any other place you can plaster a quote that might impact a person’s thinking.

(Clare) #11

Maybe we should replace ‘man’ with ‘nutritionist’ and get them in the dudes’ tshirt shop. :joy: