The soda tax may not be popular, but here's the thing: it will save lives
N.L.'s pending tax has met with criticism, but not from me, says Teri-lynn Myers
This column is an opinion by Teri-lynn Myers. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
I'm going to be upfront with you: I am not a dietitian, nor am I a physician. I have a degree in psychology, but my studies before that helped inform my opinion on an important issue in Newfoundland and Labrador — the pending tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
For two and a half years, I worked toward a dietetics degree. I left the program as life and other priorities got in the way of its completion.
There was one overarching lesson I learned during that time, though, and here it is: sugar is bad for you.
A lot of people might argue with that blanket statement because we are a species that survives on glucose, a simple sugar. Everything — from your brain to your muscles — relies on glucose to function efficiently, which is why some think we have such a sweet tooth.
Evolution created this sweet tooth. We need sugar to survive and thus, we will crave it and only be satisfied once our bodies receive it.
Over time, our intake has become pushed to the point that sugar is now in many processed foods, often in amounts so exorbitant that packages don't even say how much of your daily intake they contain.
Cheap, sweet and dangerous
Sugar has many names these days. One that is frequently seen is high-fructose corn syrup. Once it became cheap, manufacturers started putting it in everything. It makes things taste good and makes people want more of it, so why wouldn't they put it in everything? It's a gold mine.
Sugar has long been found in soda, or pop, or soft drinks — whatever you want to call them. For decades, we have been drinking our sugar. Instead of just having it in your food, you get to eat sugar with a side of sugar to boot.
Worse, all this sugar in soda beverages has contributed to the obesity epidemic.
We know that sugary beverages are bad. End of story; no need for further argument. You don't need sugary beverages to survive. In fact, you don't need them at all.
In September, the Newfoundland and Labrador government will implement a tax on beverages sweetened with sugar.
That raises the question for me: why are some people constantly trying to get rid of the sugar tax?
One answer I believe to be true is that we are addicted to sugar, to the point that we will continue to buy it even when prices are raised astronomically. This causes people to complain about taxes, even when the facts are laid bare.
By the way, you don't need to spend any money on the new tax. The simplest way to avoid it is to not buy the product.
Sugar is damaging so many lives
Some people will still shake their heads, or come up with rationalizations or justifications. I understand that. When people are addicted to something, they aren't thinking rationally about it. Their brain is telling them they need it and so they believe that, regardless of how bad it may be for you.
Sugar is bad for you, and it's addictive. What if I offered another reason: that it's poisonous, and that drinking soda could be poisonous to you?
That sounds dramatic, and it is.
But I believe it to be true, and that is because of the work of Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist in California who has dedicated much of his career to stopping people from eating and drinking so much sugar that they become obese and, ultimately, die.
Lustig has written several books on eating and health, all related to his point that sugar is not good for you. )He is also known for this video, Sugar: The Bitter Truth, which has been viewed 20 million times.)
In his most recent book, Metabolical: The Lure and Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine, Lustig writes that sugar "supplies the backbone for the structural elements that allow cancer cells to divide and multiply." He also writes that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages "has been shown to be an independent predictor" of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
I've been discouraged to see such pushback against a tax that could help us and make us healthier.
Of course the beverage industry doesn't want this tax; they want to make money. But we as humans need to band together, for our health and the health of our loved ones.
That's why I felt compelled to put my few cents in there, because sugar is damaging so many lives.
Sugar is a silent killer. We all need to talk about it so that more can become aware. We need to make it a loud killer — and then even not a killer at all.
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