I\’m sure you\’ll all have noticed the increasing propaganda about how it\’s sugar that is the evil in our food. about how it should be banned, forsworn, government must do something?
So here\’s a little test. The European Union has a Sugar Policy. Which is that vast sums of taxpayers\’ money must be lavished upon farmers who grow sugar beet. You know, so they can grow more of this sugar that is killing us all?
Have you seen any single one of those complaining about sugar arguing that the first and most obvious point, if sugar really is evil, must be to kill stone dead, bury with a stake in its heart at the crossroads, lemon between the teeth and decaptitated, the EU\’s Sugar Policy?
No, I haven\’t either. I assume this is because these people whining about sugar are simply cunts.
That’s a safe assumption.
They want more government action not less, so they will not complain about subsidies.
It is the nth front in the totalitarian campaign to regulate every area of your life. What you smoke, what you drink, what you eat, what you think.
I seem to recall the EU Sugar Policy being a nice little earner for some. They gave one of the former Yugoslav states access to sell sugar into Europe with some kind of subsidy attached.
What followed was a massive increase in sugar product in that nation, all of it sent into Europe and then re-exported attracting yet another subsidy on the way out. The same sugar then found it’s way back to that same country and repeated the process.
The Serbian Sugar Circle I recall it being called.
This is the first piece of yours I’ve read ever to have disagreed with you on. Sugar or more accurately, corn syrup is a significant cost to the taxpayer in NHS treatment, it’s also working it’s way up the top killer chart.
Sugar is a drug, like smoking, or cocaine (or tax). It changes behavior as the drug becomes the most important thing to the user.
One of the few pieces of real research here (despite it being on the BBC).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0167vjt
Sugar is just part of the very real food security issues this country faces especially if we leave the EU.
Time to start digging our way to victory, again.
Keep up the good work on everything else.
So hang on Editor, do we need to stop sugar (the first half of your comment) or worry about where we’re getting it from (the second half)?
Tim, I think you’re wrong about this.
The EU operates a foolish policy of sugar quotas and import tariffs, the effect of which is to raise EU sugar prices to (currently) about twice the open market price.
So from the point of view of the evils of sugar, the EU Sugar Policy is working in the right direction. And you owe the alleged whiners an apology.
FWIW, I make a point of only buying cane sugar, which has to be grown at tropical latitudes (well away from the EU) and requires minimal processing. If it doesn’t say ‘cane’ on the packet, it’s almost certainly what we call turnip sugar…
Yes, war on Frosties..it’s Labour’s only announced policy for 2015.
PaulB
Isn’t the point here that the EU is attempting to protect an industry that the likes of Editor and assorted other obsessives think is supplying a dangerous drug ? They are therefore complicit in evil but receive no criticism for it. Price isn’t really relevant.
Editor: “Sugar or more accurately, corn syrup”.
Well which? They are different things.
@John Davis: but corn syrup is highly processed which proves that it’s eeeevil.
Editor
” Sugar or more accurately, corn syrup is a significant cost to the taxpayer in NHS treatment, it’s also working it’s way up the top killer chart.”
Really? Corn syrup is almost non-existent in the UK food supply.
Paul B is right. The EU no longer subsidises the production of sugar. The Single Farm Payment scheme replaced production subsidies and set-aside etc.
The CAP is still indefensible though
I’m a type 2 diabetic. Keeping extraneous sugar to a minimum, especially as I like my sugar in liquid form, is a major headache(literally) As a result, I have to cook my own sandwich meats (added dextrose, check the labels) bake my own bread make my own pastry, etc. Oh, and watch what I drink. This is expensive and many families will be unable to do it. Any processed supermarket foodstuffs include excess sugar and salt. The incidence of Type 2 diabetes is rising, and the food industry is part of the problem.
@ Editor
If sugar is a drug, why did I suffer no withdrawal symptoms when I switched to sugar-free sweeteners for my coffee and tea and later to unsweetened drinks?
Valid answer, please – no arrogant brush-offs
Editor – “This is the first piece of yours I’ve read ever to have disagreed with you on.”
You need to get out more. TW is sound, but he is not that sound. No one should be.
“Sugar or more accurately, corn syrup is a significant cost to the taxpayer in NHS treatment, it’s also working it’s way up the top killer chart.”
As we don’t eat much corn syrup and you don’t know what you’re talking about, I wonder why you think you know what you’re talking about. There is no obvious sign that sugar is costing the NHS a damn thing. The big expensive items on the NHS are things like cancer or Alzheimer’s. You have evidence that proves either of those are linked to sugars? If you mean we are getting fatter, we are. We are also living longer. Connect the dots.
“Sugar is a drug, like smoking, or cocaine (or tax). It changes behavior as the drug becomes the most important thing to the user.”
Yeah. People like eating nice food, therefore they must be forced on to a diet of boiled turnips and mushy peas. This is just the hair shirt brigade out to stop anyone enjoying themselves.
“Sugar is just part of the very real food security issues this country faces especially if we leave the EU.”
Food security issue? You mean if we leave the EU we won’t have a guaranteed supply of German beet sugar? The horror! You can’t have it both ways. Either you want to get rid of sugar – in which case leaving the EU would be a good thing – or you can demand we guarantee a supply. Which is it?
“Time to start digging our way to victory, again.”
Mandatory potato lifting? Excellent. The Soviet Union wasn’t really a warning for people like you was it?