Yes, maybe you can blame obesity on sugary drinks, but personal responsibility has to assume part or most of the blame.
I'm trying to eat healthily, but I have a tendency to want the foods that I grew up with. In the 1960s and the 1970s, people ate fried foods all the time and thought nothing of it. It was normal for us to go out to Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, or McDonald's. We ate a variety of foods at home, but my mother also made really good fried chicken and this was my favorite.
I grew up drinking sugary soft drinks and didn't start drinking diet soda until I had a weight problem. The diet soda didn't help, and it caused acid reflux so I had to give it up as an adult.
It wasn't till 2008 that I started listening to Dr. Robert Lustig who said that sugar is a poison. Sucrose is a disaccharide that consists of one part glucose and one part fructose. He claims that fructose gets processed in the liver the same way alcohol does. The body can't use it directly and converts it to an unhealthy form of fat. Too much of this can damage the liver, and sugar consumption is associated with a variety of health problems. (He is actually not against fruit, because fruit has a variety of benefits. Fruit is nature's candy.)
Prior to this, I thought that it was okay to have sugary snacks as part of my diet provided that I count calories.
We used to have long meetings at work, and sometimes they would bring in donuts or snacks as a way to keep people happy. When meetings would finish, other people would raid the conference room for leftover snacks. I used to do this too, and there was an informal network of people who kept each other informed, usually by email, about snacks available in the conference rooms.
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