Food for Thought #972

 

Backlash as Nando’s Limits Customers to One Coke per Visit Under New ‘Nanny State’ Rules

 Nando’s has sparked a backlash after restricting customers to a single glass of Coca-Cola Classic under new ‘nanny state’ Government rules aimed at cutting sugar consumption. The Mail has more.

The Peri-Peri chicken chain, known for its ‘bottomless’ drink option, previously allowed diners to refill soft drinks freely during their meal.

But while zero-sugar options such as Sprite Zero and Fanta Zero remain unlimited, Coca-Cola Classic is now capped at one serving.

An updated sticker on Nando’s drinks machines now reads: “Want Coca-Cola Classic? It’s one glass only.

“Based on new government laws, we’ve had to limit Coca-Cola Classic to one glass per customer. Still thirsty? Help yourself to one of our low-sugar fizzy bottomless soft drinks.”

The move immediately triggered complaints on social media. One X user wrote: “Welcome to the nanny state.” Another said: “This must be a joke.”

Other restaurant chains believed to have enacted similar restrictions on free refills include Five Guys, Toby Carvery, Harvester, Pizza Hut and Burger King.

The change comes as part of a series of anti-obesity measures that have been gradually introduced since 2021, under then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Just days ago, new regulations came into effect banning ‘buy one, get one free’ promotions on foods high in fat, sugar or salt, as well as free refills of sugary soft drinks in restaurants and cafés....<<<Read More>>>...

Junk science SUGAR FOOD STUFF wrecks the brain’s emotional circuits, fueling depression, sleep disturbance, social withdrawal

 Depression, one of the world’s most pervasive mental health disorders, affects more than 280 million people globally as of 2025. Characterized by lethargy, disturbed sleep, and social withdrawal, depression significantly disrupts daily life and increases suicide risk.

While current antidepressants mainly target neurotransmitters such as serotonin, they only help about half of patients and often produce side effects. Seeking new biological mechanisms, researchers at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have discovered a novel molecular pathway linking tiny sugar molecules in the brain to depressive behavior — a breakthrough that could redefine how depression is diagnosed and treated....<<<Read More>>>...

The truth about sugar addiction

[Mercola]: When you eat sugary foods, the reward center of your brain, known as the nucleus accumbens, is stimulated through increased signals of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in your perception of pleasure.

Because eating sugar makes you feel good, you're likely to eat it often. As you consume excessive amounts of sugar on a regular basis, your body's dopamine signals become weaker and you develop tolerance, so you have to eat more sugar to get the same level of reward, eventually resulting in sugar addiction.

This is why manufacturers use sugar to drive your behaviour.

There have been many studies regarding the addictive potential of sugar. For instance, a 2018 review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine states that "sugar has been found to produce more symptoms than is required to be considered an addictive substance."

It exhibits drug-like effects such as bingeing, craving, tolerance, withdrawal, cross-sensitization, cross-tolerance and cross-dependence. Another study published in the journal Neuroscience states that intermittent bingeing on sucrose and abusing drugs can both increase extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens...read more>>>...

The Sugar Conspiracy – Papers Expose Industry Plot to Frame Fat for Heart Disease

Waking Times: It sounds like a movie plot – men with dubious intentions, a trove of secret documents, and a red herring to distract people from the truth. But unlike cinema, this story is 100% real-like the dangers of sugar that industry execs tried to hide.

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have uncovered long-hidden truths that manufacturers of sugary foodstuffs would prefer us to ignore. An analysis of internal sugar industry documents has exposed what executives really knew about the health hazards of sugar and their unscrupulous plans to get it down our throats at any cost.

In an article titled “Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents,” authors Stanton Glantz, Laura Schmidt, and Cristin Kearns expose how sugar industry execs buried the truth about the risks of sugar consumption in an effort to push their product on an unsuspecting public.

Authors of the analysis, published in September 2016’s JAMA Internal Medicine, combed public archives to uncover the trove of nearly 1,600 pages of internal sugar industry communications referred to as the “sugar papers.” The documents expose a sinister scheme to boost sales of sugar during a time in our collective history when public health was facing unprecedented risks – risks that spotlighted an increasingly unhealthy American diet.

In the mid-1950s, the medical research community began to link sugar consumption with high blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels – two of the primary risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD). The sugar papers reveal that executives at Sugar Research Foundation (SRF), an international sugar industry trade organization, were aware of the link between sugar and CHD. Heart disease was the leading cause of death in the United States, a distinction it still holds today, and public concern about preventing CHD was growing.This dangerous association did not deter SRFs plans to grow nationwide sugar consumption, a harmful mandate that we know in retrospect was staggeringly successful. Since the 1950s, Americans’ sugar intake has increased three-fold. It is estimated that an average American now consumes between 120-170 pounds of sugar each year....read more>>>...