Halloween is a time of year when most of us suspend our healthy habits for at least one night.

We go trick or treating, consume an inordinate amount of sugar, and then the next day (in the grips of a sugar hangover) we recommit to our normal healthy diets.

That would be fine, if it was really true that we could limit the sugar overload to just this one night a year. But in the United States, sugar is added to almost everything we eat! We don’t even know how much we’re eating half the time.

This clip from John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” is a humorously delivered summary of the American sugar problem. Give it a watch! But, if 11 minutes is too long, let me give you some highlights:

1. The average American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar a day (1:21).
2. Sugar activates our brain the same way that cocaine does! (2:00)
3. At 3:31 watch a rat try to find an island in a pool after eating a diet of sugar and fat (like the standard American diet).
4. The sugar industry is paying people to say that sugar does not contribute to obesity (6:00).
5. And from about seven minutes in to the end, John Oliver addresses the issue for conscious consumers.

 

Shouldn’t we be allowed to know when it’s being unnecessarily added to our foods? Shouldn’t we be informed about how much we’re actually eating? Well, the sugar industry doesn’t want us to know because they know they will lose business. Watch to the end to see how you can help!

 

 

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Author: Kathryn Muyskens

Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: YouTube Screenshot