October 27, 2014

This Halloween, John Oliver Explains How the Sugar Industry Is Killing Us With Lies


This Halloween, Americans are gearing up to spend a whopping $2.2 billion in candy supplies, according to the latest Last Week Tonight. But how much sugar do we consume on the regular? That’s where it gets a bit murky, thanks to the sugar industry’s sweet little lies.

In light of Big Sugar’s deception tactics, John Oliver breaks it down for us: We take in nearly 75 pounds of sugar annually or, as he expertly describes, “Michael Cera’s weight in sugar ever year.”

Gross, but it’s not exactly our fault, considering a disturbing amount of our food’s sugar content is hidden from us.

“Regardless of whether sugar is terrible for you or the answer to all of life’s problems, shouldn’t you at least get to know when it’s been added to your food?” Oliver asked. After all, sugar is a leading contributor to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Last night, Oliver presented a rather festive solution to all this in the form of circus peanuts, “the most disgusting of all the candies.” Watch below:

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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