This weeks reading was the first section of Salt, Sugar, and Fat, detailing the obsession with sugar. We are walked through a very recent history (within the last 100 years) of how sugar came to dominate nearly every food and drink we have on a daily basis. We are given a chronological explanation of how a shift occurred, mostly after World War II, that changed the vast majority of American's diets and caused the epidemic of obesity.
In the prologue, we are given the details of a secret meeting between food industry CEOs and their views on obesity and the contribution of their products. In short, they don't care. We will be seeing just as much sugar in the coming times.
The chapters in this section detail the different marketing efforts of several iconic companies. Dr Pepper, Coke, and the cereal industry, to name a few, were among the examples showing how marketing and demand has driven for foods saturated with sugar. As a result, nearly every food in the grocery store is not sugar frosted, sugar blasted, or just colored sugar.
There are numerous ethical issues that arise from this. And since I have to present this to the class tomorrow, I won't go to in-depth yet. But when we read about sugar's conquest, and how we are completely subjugated by sugary foods and bad nutrition, there comes a point when we have to decide that it's too much and something needs to be done. What is the best way to turn things around?
I don't think anything can truly be turned around, but small changes that consumers don't notice would probably be the best way to make a change. If you change a product slowly over years, the consumers might not notice and the change could gradually go to moving people away from high concentrations of sugar in their diets.
ReplyDeleteThanks for leading us in class.
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