Sugar, Sugar.

A recent article in the New York Times discussed the idea of placing taxes on sugary beverages in an effort to curb obesity. While it is true that increased sugar consumption is by far the fastest and quite frankly, the only way to become obese, what's next? A fat tax? An exercise too little tax?

To reduce their circumferential measures, people need to be educated, not taxed.

The proposition of a tax to curb obesity is just our governments way of saying "You Americans are too weak of will and stupid to control yourselves, and we're too lazy and dumb to educate you so, we'll just tax you and profit by it instead." So what else is new.

Light bulb: What about a reward system rather than one of punishment? Example: If you keep your body weight within 20 pounds of your optimal body composition, you get an income tax reduction. And who cares how you do it? You can eat very healthfully and still have a Snickers bar, a can of ginger ale and be no worse for the wear but heavenforfend! Not that I advocate eating this sort of fare, but hey -- healthy is healthy. I enjoy my wine and I'm very healthy. Why can't someone enjoy a can of soda without being shaken down?

Here again we see the government looking for their lost keys where the light is better. The cure for obesity, diabetes and perhaps for most cancers and autoimmune disorders is to eat as we would before the advent of agriculture.

Animals in the wild rarely, if ever get cancer. They certainly do not become obese or diabetic. Only when humans invite them into their lives do these ills descend upon them. No, no -- it's not because they don't live long enough in the wild to experience these problems. Young humans get cancer, fat and diabetic too.

It's what we feed our pets and what we feed ourselves that may very well be the cause of most of our ills and certainly increases them. We feed our animals and ourselves foods that would never be eaten in our natural habitats. Dog and cat foods are laden with carbohydrates (and other fillers) - a macronutrient that is entirely unnecessary in their diet (or ours for that matter). Carnivores, like us, do not need carbohydrates in any amount to survive and survive quite well. Yet, it is what the government food pyramid stresses as the main nutrient for humans and what is boasted in most if not all pet foods. I saw a dog food commercial the other day that said: "Now, with carrots and even oatmeal!" Oatmeal -- for a dog? I love the way they stressed the word 'even.'

From the Dietary Reference Intake which is "a series of reports on the dietary reference values for the intake of nutrients by Americans and Canadians. They include details on the application of statistically valid methods and reviews the roles that macronutrients play in traditional deficiency diseases as well as chronic diseases." DRI's page 275:

"The lower limit of dietary carbohydrate compatible with life apparently is zero, provided that adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed."

There you have it sports fans. We need zero carbohydrates in our diet yet carbohydrates make up over 70% of the govenment food pyramid. Will someone please explain this to me?

Cancer, obesity, diabetes and arthritis do not float in the sky, land on and infect us. You can't breathe them in, get them from an insect or contract them from others. These ills are, for the most part, self inflicted. They arise from what we do and don't eat. For example: Cancer feeds on sugar. We've known this for decades. Carbohydrates are sugars. Remove the sugars and you remove the potential cause of and certainly the food for cancers. Yes my friends, it may very well be that simple. Sounds crazy, right? But why -- why does it sound crazy? Stop and think about this for just a moment. Do animals in the wild get cancers as we do? Do they ever become obese or diabetic? What do all of of these maladies have in common? The ingestion of excess sugar.

I believe that our society has no idea how brainwahsed and dumbed up and down we have become by clever marketing and advertising. Even Dr. Oz is telling people to eat oatmeal and shun meat. Would you put oatmeal into your dogs food bowl? Heck no. So then why are you putting it into yours -- or your child's? Most answer that humans are humans and dogs are dogs and thus we have different digestive systems. This is not exactly true.

Let's not tax sugary foods Mr. Obama (I realize that you're not 100% for it). Let's instead educate people how dangerous sugar is in all its forms and put an end to the ills caused by this macronutrient once and for all. I am calling for a three-month moratorium on sugar and grain based carbohydrates. Rather than all join hands and walk for the cure, let's instead join minds and eat for it.

Follow Fred Hahn on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SeriousStrength

Comments

[dsws]

"We need zero carbohydrates in our diet yet carbohydrates make up over 70% of the government food pyramid. Will someone please explain this to me?"

We can survive on zero carbohydrate. That doesn't mean it's the optimum amount. We can use protein to synthesize carbohydrate. So can pigs, guinea pigs, rats, and pigeons, for example. It does not follow that those animals are pure carnivores. They're not ruminants, and can't survive on cellulose. But many animals other than ruminants eat plants.

Our ancestors of several million years ago mostly ate fruit -- fibrous fruit that we would consider barely edible at best. They ate some animals too, and some seeds and roots. But we are far from being pure carnivores.

"Do animals in the wild get cancers"

Yes. Most don't survive to adulthood, let alone long enough to get cancer. If they do, they probably get eaten as soon as they begin to show symptoms. So of course we don't usually see lots of animals with cancer. However, it does happen: for example, Tasmanian devils are endangered because of an infectious cancer.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080128173735.htm

Btw, you wrote that a realistic maximum net calorie expenditure over BMR per hour of elliptical is 200. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jake-steinfeld/the-ireali-truth-about-ex_b_262321.html?show_comment_id=29408286#comment_29408286 I see no way to account for the amount of weight I've lost unless I've been burning way more calories on the machine.

[walks]

when they stop feeding chicken waste to animals, they might be safer to eat. at least we know what fruits and veggies get.

[Reiziger]

yeah - they get covered in chicken poo, resulting in e coli scares and the like

Gimme lean beef, lots of chicken and a great big wedge of brie. Vitamins will take care of the rest!