Last night, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight got a jumpstart on this week’s news: SUGAR!!! (Brought to you by the makers of Halloween™.) And instead of making fun of obese, diabetic, candy-gobbling Americans — which is easy, considering that we’ll spend a total of $2.2 billion on the stuff this Halloween — he slammed the high-powered industry behind those spooky diabetes and obesity rates.
For a treat, Oliver offers up a video clip of the sleepy president of The Sugar Association, for instance, arguing that there’s been “plenty of science that exonerates sugar, that clarifies sugar does not contribute to obesity or diabetes.” Problem is, as Oliver points out, what little of such science there is usually comes from researchers who are paid gobs of money by totally unbiased groups like the Corn Refiners Association.
These kinds of groups are precisely the ones battling a new FDA proposal for an “added sugar” label, too, given how freaking much sugar is snuck into regular, non-Halloweeny foods. (“Look at Clamato juice,” Oliver says. “‘The Original Tomato Cocktail With Clam.’ They clearly thought, ‘Let’s improve the taste by adding sugar.’ Instead of thinking, ‘Let’s improve the taste by removing the clam.'”)
Point is, this clip is awesome, and we heart you, too, John Oliver — especially for that brutally honest description of the circus peanut.
