Will Sugar Be the New Tobacco in Presidential Politics?

medieval-skull-then-with-sugar(Medieval people’s teeth were white, before sugar)

   Commercial television in the US is shrinking.  Public sector programming is filling the void.   High-quality dramatic episodes and historical documentaries from BBC, like Downton Abbey are standard fare for millions. 

      Sunday evening “free and in the clear” programming, for example, leads off with Call the Midwife and continues through Wolf Hall and beyond, the latter adding entertainment that is historical and educational. 

     But wait!  After a recent Henry 8th-focused Wolf Hall, came a supplemental documentary, Hidden Killers of the Tudor Home, with one of the four highlighted “killers” being the arrival of sugar in Europe from English plantations in the Caribbean, especially during the 18th-century.

      Though the basics-only medieval foods left people with white teeth, later sugar-based diets caused “invisible” tooth decay, gum disease, and a host of very familiar illnesses, still with us today.  

      A recent Washington Post column by Dana Milbank argues that the combination of money and politics all but guarantees that the poisonous effect of sugar on human health will be low-balled by all who make money on promoting sugar in the diet.  “So what do you do if your financial health depends on people being unhealthy?” asks Milbank.   His answer is simple and all-too-familiar: “you keep on denying.”  

     We live in a plutocracy, where big political races essentially favor the super rich.   Only millionaires and billionaires need throw their hats into the ring. 

     Wealthy people largely escape negative press.  Why?  Because companies manufacturing health-killing sugar products create jobs, pump the economy, and guarantee results in political campaigns.  Were the Doles wrong to side with big tobacco companies? Yes, but isn’t sugar the new tobacco?

     Do health-care professionals, including dentists, look the other way when their very livelihoods depend upon more “problems” coming through the front door?  

     Slow killers like tobacco and sugar took centuries to understand health wise. Political challenges are fraught with self-interest.  Even so, not long ago it was out with Bob Dole, in with Bill Clinton.  Will sugar be a factor in the next presidential campaign?

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