cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/22143130
Great, now all the undernourished kids with poor parents are going to drink water instead and lose weight to dangerously unhealthy levels.
According to The Guardian (same source as this article), the number of children in food poverty in the UK is 4 million. 15% of UK households went hungry in January. Now, soda isn’t the smartest source of calories in a kid’s diet. It’s expensive and low in other nutrients. But kids aren’t always smart. A poor kid thinks “I’m hungry, I have a few pounds, there’s a vending machine, problem solved”. If the soda is too expensive, that doesn’t mean the kid is going to go to Aldi, buy some potatoes, and roast them for a cheap and nutritious meal. They’re a kid! It means they’ll pay more or go without. Which means you’re making the poverty and malnutrition problem worse.
Imagine what would happen if the government actually regulated and restricted sugar.
People in despair don’t care about much at all. Nevermind this shit is addictive, psychologically manipulative, it also acts as a little dopamine hit in an otherwise miserable life. Obesity deaths are deaths of despair.
Imagine if people wanted to live.
Then make the decision to live. Let people choose. You want to exercise? Do it. You don’t? Then don’t. You want to eat shit? Then eat shit. You don’t? Then eat better. Oh no I don’t have the willpower to stop eating shit but now I can’t afford to continue so it doesn’t matter? This isn’t improvement
So is there study that would have looked into how much of the sugar was just replaced with other sweeteners? Or how much soda consumption itself has changed?
Carcinogenic like aspartame, and still activate glucose receptors (that’s why they are sweet) so still cause insulin resistance etc.