As much as I enjoy writing about politics, it somehow didn’t seem appropriate to come out with another political screed at Christmas. With that in mind, I decided to touch on a more seasonal topic: sweets.
Holidays like Christmas are when Americans gorge themselves on all kinds of sugar-filled confections. I remember, as a kid, looking forward to Christmas, where candy was never in short supply.
It’s not like we didn’t have access to candy all year, but it wasn’t something we got on a daily basis. My parents were “old school” and believed in cooking and serving real food. We drank this stuff called water, or milk, and dinner in the summer time always included iced tea or lemonade. A Pepsi, Coke, RC or a Hires Root Beer was an occasional treat, mainly because my mother and father instinctively knew that too much added sugar was bad for you. They were correct.
I haven’t done much research on this, but I swear that the candy we had back then wasn’t as sweet as it is now. I remember my all-time favorite Reese’s Cup actually tasting like chocolate and peanut butter, as well as being twice the size of what it is now and costing one-twentieth of today’s price.
Today, my favorite candy bar tastes like sugar with maybe a hint of chocolate and peanut butter, with the sweetness overwhelming the flavor.
The same is true for all of my old favorites. I didn’t notice the increase in sweetness until I first went to work in West Germany in 1978. I noticed immediately that German or Dutch chocolate actually tasted like chocolate, and the other flavors came through without being overwhelmed by sugar.
It was clear to me then that, at least in Western Europe, there was less sugar in the candy.
I wondered why American candies seemed to get sweeter over time, and the answer is pretty simple: money. It all actually started before any of us shuffled into this mortal coil, when industrialization hit rural America and increased agricultural production along with declining food exports after World War I.
Thousands of farmers were displaced in the prelude to the Great Depression. In 1933, at the request of President Franklin Roosevelt, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which among other things, paid farmers not to produce in order to keep prices up. But that bill, and subsequent versions of it, contained worse provisions.
It had the affect of creating a government cartel and a small group of sugar producers, wherein the government would guarantee a minimum price for sugar by restricting production, then buy up excess amounts produced by the sugar growers.
The price increase is then passed on to the consumer.
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You would think this would lower sugar production and consumption, but the sugar lobby knows a good thing when it sees it, and that’s why you see more sugar in almost everything and not just sweets. You’ll find it in some soups, sauces, processed meats, cereals and so on.
In the farm bill of 2014, which amounted to just shy of $1 trillion, sugar producers and their lobbyists made out like bandits, reaping huge subsidies. The most insidious thing is that this cost to the taxpayer is hidden and “off-budget” because the costs of the subsidies are passed on to the consumer. The Congressional Budget Office doesn’t “score” anything not directly paid for by direct appropriation.
It’s bad enough that American consumers are being hit by these hidden taxes that fund Big Sugar, but the real cost is even higher, especially in regard to health.
From 1960 to 2008, obesity among adults in America increased from roughly 20% to 34%. In turn, the incidence of type 2 diabetes has gone up over the last three decades, especially among young people, with a 4.8% increase per year in the last 15 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Thirty-Four million Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes with about another 60 million with pre-diabetes.
Diabetes isn’t the only health problem connected to sugar consumption. Your liver converts excess sugar into triglycerides, which are a major contributor to heart disease and hypertension. Natural sugars are different, taking longer for the body to break down, and aren’t as concentrated. As an example, an orange is 9% sugar by weight, while a Snickers bar is 50%.
So, with all of the above in mind, have a Merry Christmas, and indulge yourself. Have a Reese’s Christmas tree, or better yet, an orange!
Dwight Weidman is a resident of Greene Township and is a graduate of Shepherd University. He is retired from the United States Department of Defense, where his career included assignments In Europe, Asia, and Central America. He has been in leadership roles for the Republican Party in two states, most recently serving two terms as Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party. Involved in web publishing since 1996, he is the publisher of The Franklin County Journal. He has been an Amateur Radio Operator since 1988, getting his first license in Germany, and is a past volunteer with both Navy and Army MARS, Military Auxiliary Radio Service, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
