Sugar, The Food Industry and You
Written By: Kali Flowers
Sugar is addictive and the food industry knows it. That’s why you will find it in 70% of foods at your local supermarket(1). This is a problem that many working class people from all over the world deal with, but one that often goes unseen.
“The cheapness and accessibility of these foods makes them particularly attractive to those who lack the time, money, or fresh produce”
The American Psychiatric Association defines an addictive substance as one that has three of seven qualifying criteria. Two of these are physiological: tolerance and withdrawal; while the other five are psychological; bingeing, a desire to quit, craving, its use affecting daily life, and continued use despite negative consequences(2). The first two, the physiological effects, are especially important factors in determining addiction, and sugar fulfils both of these, with psychological criteria being met differently depending on the person. Some people might get cravings, some people might be susceptible to bingeing, while others can be affected by both. Sugar has been shown to have a similar effect on the brain as cocaine when it comes to tolerance (3). People who quit sugar report with consistency that they experience withdrawal symptoms in the forms of headaches, anxiety, fatigue, and muscle aches. In his documentary “Super Size Me” Morgan Spurlock describes the symptoms he experiences until he eats fast food, which in most cases is full of sugar in one of its fifty-six forms (4)(5). Damon Gameau also talks about his withdrawal symptoms after experimenting with being on a high-sugar diet for sixty days in his documentary “That Sugar Film”, comparing it to giving up cigarettes (6).
This is not to say that all forms of sugar are bad, of course. The sugar that comes from fruits, vegetables, and other plants in their natural states can be good for you. The issues arise with refinement of sugar. Farmers in the Andes have chewed coca leaves for thousands of years with the only health side effect being the possibility of bad teeth, but when refined into cocaine it becomes so much more addictive. The same is true for alcohol, and explains why alcoholics will forgo beer or wine in favour of spirits. The same is true of sugar; Refinement, and therefore increased potency, will create a stronger dopamine response in the brain, making you feel good.
In order for food manufacturing companies to benefit from the addictive power of sugar they take advantage of what is called the “bliss point”, which is the perfect amount of sugar, salt, or fat to add to a product to maximise taste so that people will want to buy more (7). This allows the food industry to market to virtually anyone, even to health-conscious consumers, since foods such as yoghurt can have all the fats removed and replaced with sugar while still being able to advertise the item as “low-fat”. This is done to make sure that profits remain high, no matter the cost to human well-being, which plays little to no consideration in the creation of these products. This can be problematic especially with ready-made meals that can be bought from supermarkets. The cheapness and accessibility of these foods makes them particularly attractive to those who lack the time, money, or ability to make their own meals at home using fresh produce, and can result in long-term health problems. This plays no small role in the obesity epidemic that many Western countries are experiencing.
“The “Bliss Point”, which is the perfect amount of sugar, salt, or fat to add to a product to maximise taste so that people will want to buy more”
Overconsumption of sugar can result in many problems that take a toll on an individual’s health throughout their life, such as obesity, diabetes (8), and heart disease (9). The Australian Bureau of Statistics found that between 2017 and 2018, two thirds of Australian adults were overweight or obese, which was an increase of 3.6% since 2014-15, with 24.9% of children aged between 5-17 also being overweight or obese (10). High-sugar diets can also be a factor in mental health issues, such as depression (11), and other diseases or conditions not listed here (12).
So what can be done about this? Given the ease and convenience of food-delivery services and cheap microwave meals, it is not hard for the weary worker, pressed for time, to fall into high-sugar eating habits. An alternative can be to bulk prepare meals like stews or pasta using fresh, seasonal ingredients once a week, fortnight, or month, and freezing them in portions for lunch or dinner. Buying ingredients such as legumes or grains in bulk can result in quite cheap meals that are very nutritious. In the pandemic situation, if one finds themselves at home with a lot of time, learning how to cook, and if you have children getting them involved, might be a fun, new pastime, and can also educate you about what goes into the food that you eat. There is no shortage of recipes on the internet and cooking tutorials on YouTube for you to follow.
“The chief concern of food distributors is how to make the biggest possible profit, not serve society’s need for nutrition”
Ultimately though, the excessive consumption of sugar and the health issues it causes are systemic problems of capitalism. Under capitalism, food is a commodity like any other whose production and sale is dictated by the logic of capital. When designing and marketing food products, the chief concern of food distributors is how to make the biggest possible profit, not serve society’s need for nutrition. This same logic leads to “food deserts”, areas where people lack affordable access to nutritious food, which mostly affect poor communities. Although individuals can make some difference to their own health, it is an uphill battle for many members of the working class. We need a system that prioritises accessible provision of safe and nutritious food as a basic human right, not a system that puts profit before people.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hidden sugars unmasked on Australia’s supermarket shelves - https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/hidden-sugars-unmasked-on-australias-supermarket-shelves
DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Substance Abuse and Substance Dependence - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92053/table/ch2.t5/
Robert Lustig - Bad Sugars: Addictive and Hazardous to your Health - https://youtu.be/aXlL7yWtAAg?t=3363
Names for Sugar - https://www.virtahealth.com/blog/names-for-sugar
MacDonald’s Core Food Menu Nutrition Information - https://mcdonalds.com.au/sites/mcdonalds.com.au/files/Core_Food_Menu_Jun_20.pdf
That Sugar Film - https://thatsugarmovement.com/film/
With ‘bliss points’ and ‘mouth feel,’ food industry plays role in hedonic eating habits - https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20181114/with-bliss-points-and-mouth-feel-food-industry-plays-role-in-hedonic-eating-habits
Risk Factors Contributing to Type 2 Diabetes and Recent Advances in the Treatment and Prevention - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166864/
The Evidence for Saturated Fat and for Sugar Related to Coronary Heart Disease - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856550/
Overweight and Obesity, Department of Health - https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Overweight-and-Obesity
Sweetened beverages, coffee, and tea and depression risk among older US adults - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24743309/
11 Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad for You - https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/too-much-sugar
For further information on the topics covered in this article see the following links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olEMIohTgzQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPxIssabhTc