“today’s show”
“The whole world is getting fatter”: satire show takes on the sugar consumption of the Germans
“heute show” – comedians Lutz van der Horst and Fabian Köster take on the sugar problem in Germany
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The “heute show” reports with a special episode from the summer break. The comedians Lutz van der Horst and Fabian Köster meet with doctors and other experts to shed light on the sugar consumption of the Germans.
“The whole world is getting fatter,” says “Today Show” comedian Fabian Köster in a doctor’s practice. And he’s right. In Germany and elsewhere, people eat too much sugar. Often it’s not even their own fault.
“Today Show”: Sugar consumption a big problem
Köster and his colleague Lutz van der Horst are traveling through the country for a special episode of the “heute show” and talking to doctors and experts. They want to find out what the sugar problem in this country is all about. The statistics alone are alarming. “80 percent of all industrially produced food is enriched with sugar,” it says in the episode. As a result, “every German consumes an average of 32 sugar cubes a day”, twice as much as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The drama for many consumers: even seemingly harmless foods such as ham and herring salad are often enriched with sugar. This is what the two comedians are told by the diabetologist Dr. Martin, whose patients often notice that their blood sugar levels rise above average even though they actually didn’t consume any sugar – at least that’s what they thought.”
Over eight million Germans suffer from type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease that develops as a result of excessive sugar consumption.
Van der Horst and Köster not only get information from doctors, but also from politics. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach speaks to them. The SPD politician himself has often said in interviews that he would like to reduce his own sugar consumption. He already gives up salt. “Do we need a lockdown for sweets?” Van der Horst asks him. “I’m through with the lockdown now. It cost us endless votes,” jokes Lauterbach. “We have to do something,” he notes. Because the increasing number of overweight people has consequences. “Their diseases will only come in 10, 15, 20 years,” he says. Then the health system would be under enormous strain, he explains.
Sugar in frozen pizzas
Then van der Horst takes on frozen pizzas. Together with food expert Sebastian Lege, he takes a close look at the frozen delicacies. One of the pizzas has dextrose listed in the ingredients list. “14 percent added sugar,” notes Lege. “Sugar is the number one preservative,” says Lege. The more sugar you add, the longer the product will keep. A test of the two gives the result: the large amount of sugar doesn’t make a big difference to the taste. But it is a preservative and stabilizer – with health consequences.
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Obesity is also a problem in children and adolescents. 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight, six percent are even obese. One reason why Green politicians want to ban advertising that specifically advertises sugar products for children. Or those products that contain “too much salt and too much fat.”
It remains to be seen whether the coalition will come to an agreement or whether the sugar lobby will retain power in the end. In any case, with a lot of humor and information, the “heute show” explained well what the problem is – and where the current problem could lead.
source: “today’s show”