Feast and Famine

Feast and Famine and Sugar, oh my!

A couple of interesting pieces from the London Daily Mail that there are symptoms of famine in the UK.

Apparently, the number of hospital patients diagnosed with malnutrition has risen by 44 percent in the past five years--4,000 cases last year alone. Experts estimate that the real number is more like 3.6 million.

In the worst cases, the symptoms of malnutrition are pot bellies, wasted limbs and emaciated bodies. But the millions not at that point are more likely to be obese, lethargic and suffering vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

The cause, experts say, is a growing reliance on fast food coupled with binge drinking.

It's really a pretty scary article.

Now, think of it in terms of this piece about how the amount of sugar in so-called "healthy products" has doubled in the past 30 years. Picked out as the worst offenders? Breakfast cereals, so-called "whole-grain" breads, and soups. Special K cereal--touters of big "eat us twice and day and take off the weight" campaigns--went from 9.6 grams of sugar in 1978 to, currently, 17 grams of sugar. And that's not to mention their "Vanilla Almond" and other flavors with extra sugar. The article points out that while the UK government and watchdog groups have focused on the amount of salt in foods and on the table, the spiraling use of sugar has gone unchecked.

And so have the rates of diabetes and obesity and insulin resistance and all other sorts of good things.