Further to
yesterday's post about health warnings on alcohol, I was on Channel 5 News last night debating the idea with Lord Brooke. His lordship took the unusual tack of talking mainly about sugar and obesity. As it happens, I am not against having calorie labelling on alcoholic drinks, as he would like, but we don't agree on much else.
Further reading:
Peter Oborne:
'Bossy health chiefs, drunk on power'
Pete Brown:
'When will the anti-alcohol lobby stop lying about the "£21 billion" cost of alcohol to society?'
Daily Mash:
'Nothing you can say or do will stop us drinking, government told'
3 comments:
Where is this latest 'public health' misinformation coming from? Alcohol causes obesity? Well. only in as much as heavy beer drinkers tend to have fat guts, but that is more down to drinking large volumes of water over short periods, and less to do with sugar content in beer.
As for diabetes: it is a known fact that alcohol lowers blood sugar, so moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks without much sugar in them (eg wines), is as useful to a type 2 diabetic as daily metformin tablets.
The main culprit both for obesity and (the interrelated) type 2 diabetes is carbohydrates. Refined sugar is no worse than eating too much bread, pasta, rice etc - even fruit. They all turn into glucose in the bloodstream.
The NHS hands out dietary advice that is just plain wrong, and, in some cases, could prove fatal.
I have to say Chris talk of the "slippery slope" is a bit of a non-starter to me as an arguement and as such it falls flat; so what if they are copying from the Baccy playbook? It was successful, of course they are going to copy from it as there aren't any enforceable rules to this; just a great deal of energy crying foul from detractors of the Public Health Lunatics.
The focus should be less on what the Healthanistas are fighting (it largely doesn't matter; no really it doesn't) and more on the very existence of a Public Health lobby (the Daily Mash had it dead right here on the matter); keep putting the points across via every media possible about the egregious behaviour, the misplaced hectoring and most importantly offer viable alternatives to those mooted by the swivel-eyed loons of Public Health; Minimum price for alcohol? How about better policing and prosecution of offenders by the police, judiciary and CPS with matching funding and facilities? Plain packaging? How about lower/no tax/duty on safe alternatives such as e-cigs and snus or tax breaks on technological/safety improvements to e-cigs?
We need to start picking the terms of the battle and not allow ourselves to get bogged down in the minutiae.
His Lordship appears to be pure mental. Sugar? What does he drink? Croft Original?
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