Why are we so addicted to sugar? In the 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year. Today, however, more than 50% of all Americans consume one-half pound of sugar PER DAY (that equates to some 180 pounds of sugar per year). Obviously this is detrimental to the health of the population, seeing as 74.6% of all Americans are either overweight or obese. But why the sudden spike? And is sugar the only thing to blame?
We all know that sugar has become a constant presence in most of our foods. Has our addiction to it, however, gotten so severe that certain experts are proposing treating sugar as a controlled substance?
The first article I found takes a relatively reasonable stance on the subject and outlines the facts of our addiction to sugar. It is well known that sugar is an addictive substance, and according to this article, the same neurotransmitters in our brain are released when we consume sugar as when a person consumes certain drugs. This leads to a video outlining the dangers of sugar and how the substance should be more strictly controlled.
Lastly, an article that takes a strong stance against the control of sugar uses some degree of an emotional reasoning fallacy. Do you think that the article loses some of its validity because it includes emotional reasoning even though the author of this article provides several great reasons for his case?
Prohibition! on sugar?
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Wow! It's interesting to think of sugar as a controlled substance! I do think that including emotional reasoning does decrease the validity of the article even though the author provides good reasons for his case. Thanks for your post!
Even though there are some evidence that sugar is addictive, I think that's not only reason why people consume such a tremendous amount of sugar per day. It' is really difficult to avoid sugar consumption because almost all commercial foods contain sugars. However, it's really interesting that eating sugar gives similar effect when people get drugs. I wonder what the those drugs are.
Very interesting blog post. That is unbelievable that many people consume for than their weight in sugar each year. I feel like a contributing factor to this is all of the junk food that you see on the shelves these days. Almost everything we eat has more sugar than it needs. Companies know that people will base whether they like a product on its taste more than on its nutritional content. If the public became more educated about issues such as this, I believe we would see a lot more healthy foods on the market.
I don't think the article loses its validity in applying emotional reasoning. I think they are simply trying to emphasize the article to get people to agree with them but it does not make their previous points any less valid. However, like many other foods there are regulations on how things can be labeled and what can be in food, so why should sugar be any different?
Wow!! I can't believe the huge increase in our use of sugar over the years! I know that recently my parents have gone on a health kick and are always trying to get me to stop eating my favorite snacks due to the amount of sugar or how unhealthy it is. I just find it so hard to search out the foods with no sugar in them, and they tend to not taste as good!
I disagree with the an assumption made by the article that states that people who are overweight are at risk health-wise. Adding a healthy muscle tone to a usually lean stature skews a significant number of people from the "healthy" weight range into the "overweight" weight range. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are fat or at-risk for obesity-related diseases. Therefore, a two-thirds overweight or obese statement is too hollow for rationing to even be considered.
I believe that the article still has validity despite the author's inclusion of emotional reasoning. The hard facts of dramatically increased sugar consumption are too important to ignore. Thinking of how much this increase in consumption affects the lives of so many, its easy to see how one can get emotional.
I learned a lot from your blog post. I had no idea that when consuming sugar transmitters in the brain go off that are similar to the ones that go off when you take certain drugs. I agree with the statement that sugar is addictive. I'm always trying to cut back on my sugar intake but cannot seem to shake it. I believe the article still has validity because there is so much information about how much sugar we consume now and how much it has increased. He bases his reasoning's off facts so I believe his article is valid.
Interesting topic. Are the neurotransmitters released by sugar really any different than ones released by eating other tasty food (meat or pasta for example)? Is it eating in general that is addicting?
I'm honestly not very surprised that we consume so much sugar but I had no idea that it affected our neurotransmitters. It makes complete sense just based on your information of how much sugar we consume on a daily basis, it's just very interesting that it's chemically a part of us.
My belief is that we consume so much sugar because that's what's in the food that we eat. If scientists could find a way to substitute a non-harmful substance for sugar, that still tastes the same, then by all means, they should. I don't feel like humans are eating sugar because we want to eat sugar. I think we just eat it because it's there. As long as it doesn't dramatically alter the taste of our food, I don't believe an excessive amount of sugar is needed in our diets.