Tuesday 17 September 2013

Keep talking

From The Telegraph...

Sugar is 'addictive and the most dangerous drug of the times'

Soft drinks should carry tobacco-style warnings that sugar is highly addictive and dangerous, a senior Dutch health official has warned.

Paul van der Velpen, the head of Amsterdam's health service, the Dutch capital city where the sale of cannabis is legalised, wants to see sugar tightly regulated.

"Just like alcohol and tobacco, sugar is actually a drug. There is an important role for government. The use of sugar should be discouraged. And users should be made aware of the dangers," he wrote on an official public health website.

"This may seem exaggerated and far-fetched, but sugar is the most dangerous drug of the times and can still be easily acquired everywhere."

... "Sugar is actually a form of addiction [sic]. It's just as hard to get rid of the urge for sweet foods as of smoking. Thereby diets only work temporarily. Addiction therapy is better."

The senior health official wants to see sugar taxes and legal limits set on the amount that can added to processed food. He also wants cigarette-style warnings on sweets and soft drinks telling consumers that "sugar is addictive and bad for the health".

"Health insurers should have to finance addiction therapy for their obese clients. Schools would no longer be allowed to sell sweets and soft drinks. Producers of sports drinks that are bursting with sugar should be sued over misleading advertising and so on," he said.

This is wonderful stuff. Who needs liberal critics to warn of slippery slopes and fanaticism when all you have to do is put a microphone in front of these people and let them speak their mind?

More of this kind of thing please, 'public health professionals'. Keep talking until the whole world can see what you're all about.

2 comments:

Jonathan Bagley said...

From the article, a bizarre last paragraph,

"Obesity hit the headlines in July when police arrested three people from the town of Alkmaar for abusing Shetland ponies by filming them while they ridden by obese women clad in erotic clothing and wielding whips."


Ken said...

I really must stop putting these ideas in satirical SF novels, before our betters get round to incinerating second-hand books to get rid of the danger from fourth-hand smoke.