May 11 2011
White, Powdery, and Deadly: the Politics of Obesity
It’s been a couple of years since soda was banned from California public school campuses in an effort to curb childhood obesity. Now concerned parties are targeting another sugary drink – chocolate milk. Chocolate adds about 60 more calories to an 8oz serving of plain milk. And it comes with a lot more sugar and additives. However tossing it from cafeteria aisles will be a tougher sell than scrapping soda. The LA Times reports that many adults fear kids will refuse to drink plain milk, and forgo an important serving of daily calcium. However there is no dispute that growing waistlines among U.S. kids is a big problem. One third of American children are overweight or obese. Among adults, the problem is worse with two-thirds qualifying as overweight or obese. While the standard dietary advice from our federal health agencies promotes counting calories and fat grams as the best way to keep slim, a growing movement of scientists is pointing to sugar as the biggest villain in the battle of the bulge. Physician Robert Lustig has become an internet sensation for his lecture titled: Sugar, the Bitter Truth. Lustig, citing years of medical research, makes the case that not only does sugar make us fat, we are slowly poisoning ourselves with sweet treats. Lustig says, “We’re eating more sugar. 25% of adolescents today get 15% of their calories from fructose alone. This is a disaster. The fat’s going down, the sugar’s going up. And we’re all getting sick.” A lengthy article in the New York Times on April 13th entitled Is Sugar Toxic?, by Gary Taubes, cites Lustig’s lecture to make the case that he himself makes in his new book “Why we get fat and what to do about it.”
Read Gary Taubes’ article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print.
Special thanks to UCTV for making Dr. Lustig’s lecture available to KPFK. UCTV is available on cable in Los Angeles. It can also be found online at www.uctv.tv.
Thank you Gifts:
Robert Lustig on Sugar: The Bitter Truth – DVD – $75
Gary Taubes on “Why We get Fat and What to Do About it” – Book – $125
Uprising’s 4G USB memory stick – $120
The Uprising Politics of Obesity Pack – $250
This pack includes the highly acclaimed video lecture of Dr. Robert Lustig called Sugar: The Bitter Truth (DVD), the popular book by Gary Taubes, “Why we get Fat: And What to Do About it,” and Uprising’s 4G USB memory stick which includes the audio of Lustig’s lecture as well as Dr. Gabor Mate’s lecture.
Call 818-985-5735 or pledge online at www.kpfk.org.
2 Responses to “White, Powdery, and Deadly: the Politics of Obesity”
Kids need chocolate milk and we need a healthier one. Parents need to know about MojoMilk (www.mojomilk.com), a new chocolate milk mix that contains 60% less calories and also delivers 10x more active probiotics than yogurt. This product comes in stick packs so they can be put into lunch boxes and kids just add to plain milk for a delicious and healthy chocolate milk!
The first ingredient in Mojo Milk is “organic cane juice sugar.” That means it’s the largest percentage ingredient by weight. Kids do not need added sugar in their milk.