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John Oliver Skewers Sugar, Just In Time For Halloween
By
Nell Casey
Published Oct 27, 2014
Modified Oct 27, 2014
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By
Nell Casey
Published Oct 27, 2014
Modified Oct 27, 2014
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Just days before most of the country enters a collective sugar high, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver has set his sights on yet another scourge of the American diet: sugar. Namely that every person in this country is slated to consume about 75 pounds of it this year, whether from sugary drinks or sweet treats or unexpected places like fancy yogurt. "That's like eating Michael Cera's weight in sugar each year," quips Oliver.
Though the side-effects of our sugar addiction (namely obesity and diabetes) are worrying enough, it's the hidden sugars lurking in seemingly innocent products on which Oliver bases his argument. "We have no idea how prevalent sugar is in almost everything we eat," Oliver points out, using the 11 grams of sugar in Clamato juice as an example. "They clearly thought, 'Let's improve the taste by adding sugar,' instead of thinking, 'Let's improve the taste by removing the clam.'"
As the host points out, the FDA has taken steps to compel food manufacturers to not only list their product's sugar content, but also reveal how much of that sugar was added during production. Naturally, companies aren't keen on letting us in on how much sugar it takes to make cranberries drinkable; don't worry, it's not like consumers would pay attention anyway. Oliver's attempts to topple the sugar lobby are admirable, but like the frog in pot of slowly boiling water, we're not going to change our ways until its too late.
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diabetes
john oliver
last week tonight
obesity
show us your peanuts
sugar
Nell Casey
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