Essay Sample on Lower Sugar Consumption, Higher Lifespan

These days a lot of things contain sugar, it can be nuts, “healthy” food or even water. Some consumables have natural sugar, which means it's not added from the company, and some consumables contain added sugar, extra added sugar from the company. According to Jamie Oliver in his documentary Sugar Rush from 2018 a whole day's worth of meals and snacks contain 36 teaspoons of sugar, which is over 3 times more than the recommended amount. All this sugar consumption can lead to many things, some worse than others, and some beneficial to society.

Sugar can lead from one thing to another, like a slippery slope. According to Jillian Kubala over at Healthline (11 Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad for You, from june 3 2018) sugar can lead to obesity, which will eventually lead to not only having less energy, but these people won’t be able to move at all. Less activity and movement can lead to mental problems, like depression, which already according to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is the highest amongst young adults of the ages between 18 and 29 (CDC, september 2020). But also of course between young kids and older and retired adults.

Later Jillian Kubala mentions how sugar can negatively affect your cellular aging. With this she means you will age quicker, not only will you look older, but you will also shorten your lifespan. This of course also leads to depression as already mentioned, except it affects kids more than anyone else.

Sugar can also lead to obvious problems like tooth decay and diabetes type 2. But something many people don’t know is that brushing your teeth doesn’t help decrease the chances of tooth decay, as seen in Sugar Rush where a young child named Mario is suffering. They also later in the documentary show that the sugar, which leads to diabetes, can later lead to amputation of limbs, loss of sight, or in worst case scenarios, death. But it’s not just diabetes type 2 that leads to death, it can also be the heart problems caused by too much consumption of sugar.

But sugar isn’t anything we can just illegalize, it brings many companies income, and these companies pay higher tax with their increased income to the government. Higher sugar consumption amongst citizens can affect security, schools, hospitals and national status in a positive way due to the income. For example, according to an article from American sugarbeet (2019) the United States of America earns around $20 billion USD per year from companies who have sugar in their products. Not only that, but companies like Coca-Cola generate 142000 jobs directly related to sugar. Though this isn’t just positive, it can also be seen in a negative way. But there is a solution, as Jamie Oliver mentioned in his documentary, sugar tax is a sure way to lessen sugar consumption, but also a guaranteed way for the government to be able to invest in its country more. Except the tax will be applied everywhere (convenient stores, restaurants, online stores, etc.). Sugar tax will help lessen both the mentioned and the non-mentioned negative parts, specially diabetes, tooth decay, amputations, deaths and the other losses. Thus we’ll be living in a better world, we’ll have healthier people, be able to prioritize the children's education, safety etc. and help the future generations.

In conclusion, sugar can lead to depression, especially amongst younger people, due to obesity which leads to less physical movement and activities. It can also shorten your, your relatives and your, along with others, kids life span due to sugar's ability to affect the human body's cellular aging. But in the worst case scenario you’ll die from diabetes type 2 or heart problems. But if you’re “lucky”, if you can call it that, you’ll be amputated, blinded or neither. This is why we need to establish sugar tax on all sugary products, so we can help people and stop them from suffering in the future.