So far, fear has driven investors to sell consumer-exposed stocks. A basket of such companies — including Oreo cookies maker Mondelez International Inc. and Modelo beer producer Constellation Brand Inc. — is down nearly 9% since early August with losses roughly double those of the S&P 500 Index, while makers of things like insulin pumps have wiped out close to a third of their value over the same stretch amid concerns that fewer people will need their products.
Is junk food finally becoming the new tobacco? We can only hope. Maybe in my lifetime it will become unusual to see people having Oreos and Mountain Dew, just like it’s rare to see people out smoking in public anymore.
2055: fruit is a gateway food to such vices as cookies and pie.
I’m only half serious, but fruit is trending toward being as unhealthy as other snack foods.
Fruit has fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and no fat or cholesterol. To me the fixation on sugar is misguided - vegetable starches are exactly the same thing. A potato is basically 25% sugar for example since potato starch is simply a chain of glucose molecules.
You’re right, and I probably should have provided some context. Between breeding for sugar and longevity and soil depletion removing those fun, tasty minerals people always go on about, fruit in the future may end up being genetically engineered candy. I dread the day that heirloom fruits become the only way I can enjoy an apple.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/fruits-and-vegetables-are-less-nutritious-than-they-used-to-be
Ah, I see. You mean fruit is actually changing in terms of nutrition.
We’ve done well with apples over the past 30 years in terms of variety, at least - it used to be basically all that was available was red delicious and Granny Smith. These days just about any supermarket has a dozen different kinds of apples.
While it’s not only sugar, people who have to cut it out for medical reasons, or anyone doing keto isn’t going to be eating potatoes for that reason.
It’s carbs. Carbs is the problem, it’s just that most of them come from sugar, and for anyone not currently spiraling towards diabetes, you could probably only cut sugar out of your diet and see some beneficial changes to your health.
You know, as long as you don’t replace them with vegetables that happen to be mostly sugar.
Sure, I understand that. It was essentially my point. I see people joking or making comments about excessively sugary treats “ha ha this will give you diabetes” but I don’t see people say that about say, a bag of potato chips or a plate of bread, though they have as many carbs. Vegetable starch even is turned into blood glucose faster than sucrose.
…what? Are you saying fruit is somehow becoming less healthy?
Yep. Read an article not that long ago about zoos having to cut back on the fruit they give their animals as our fruit has way more sugar than what is found in the wild.
Intrepid reader… scroll down.
But what will I do on my Oreos and Mountain Dew break?
I tell my boss I eat Oreos and mountain dew just to get that extra 15 minute break, but honestly I just sit there
I doubt it. if only because the dividing line is much more vague than with tobacco. There’s a whole range of products that’s somewhere between healthy and unhealthy.
Maybe. I do stay in my home a lot.