Food for Thought: Can Sugar Taxes Cure Diabetes?

Good Morning & Happy Friday, Mafia!

Is anyone else just completely stunned that we’re already a month through 2024? Just me? I guess that means there are only 11 more months until this is the #1 ranked health & wellness newsletter in the world, right?

If you do end up loving this newsletter or loving the podcast, reach out! We’d love to chat. The best thing you can do if you enjoy this newsletter is share it with a loved one or a friend, so they can also get some value out of it. If you do end up sharing this newsletter, just know that we love you for it.

Alright, let’s get in to it…

Sugar More Addicting Than Cocaine: Can Sugar Taxes Incentivize Consumer Behavior?

Regardless of where you stand politically, it’s hard to ignore the rising trend of declining metabolic health in the United States. For most people, the idea that America is getting more and more sick is nothing new. We’re spending more on health care than ever before plus all basic metrics of health from average weight to the rise in chronic disease have skyrocketed. Let’s take diabetes for instance - from 1980 to 2020 the prevalence of diabetes grew from 5.5 million people to 37.3 million in the US. Which begs the question - why? 

It’s confusing to make sweeping generalizations about any one particular type of food or macronutrient, however, when it comes to sugar it’s becoming more and more convincing how harmful added sugar (aka processed sugar) is to our health. Sugar on its own is not toxic in whole food forms, however when you pair the amount of sugar we’re eating today with a sedentary, indoor lifestyle, sugar potentially becomes more and more deleterious to our health due to the way it’s metabolized in the body.

Processed sugar is just one aspect of the decline in metabolic health that’s led to 88% of Americans suffering from metabolic dysfunction, but it’s a significant one. In our opinion, one of the key differentiators behind why sugar stands out as the ultimate culprit of ill health in the West is its addictive nature. Food scientists have engineered flavors, fats, and sugars in a way that makes them highly addictive. One even study found that sugar on its own is more addictive than cocaine!

While processed sugar is not the singular factor in the rise in diabetes in the United States, it’s certainly a massive factor. Sadly, some experts do not anticipate seeing this trend reverse course anytime soon. A recent study estimated that the number of people under the age of 20 with type 2 diabetes may increase by nearly 675% by 2060. Considering that we’re already spending $327 billion on diabetes as of 2017, you can only imagine what the healthcare bill will look like in 2060 if we don’t get control of this sweeping epidemic.

Now, lawmakers in some major cities are choosing to take power into their own hands by taxing sugar. Boulder, Philadelphia, Oakland, San Francisco, and Seattle, have all implemented sugar taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and the results may show you. In Philadelphia, prices of associated with the tax rose by 58%, resulting in a 47% reduction in sugar consumption. Across all of these states, the consumption related to the sugar taxes dropped by 33%! One study found that the sugar tax in Oakland is expected to accrue more than $100,000 per 10,000 residents in societal cost savings during a 10-year period.

Regardless of where you stand on taxes, a sugar tax may be a net positive for society.

The Farm Bill May Disrupt Big Food Lobbying

Will Harris - regenerative rancher out of Bluffton, Georgia, guest on the Joe Rogan Experience and The Meat Mafia Podcast (Episode 160), and concerned American - recently wrote an article for Civil Eats discussing the potential positive effects of the newly proposed farm bill.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA) collects nearly 70% of its budget directly from the pockets of ranchers through a mandatory checkoff program. The checkoff programs were originally thought of as a way to pool resources to promote the products of farmers and ranchers, however now most of this money goes towards lobbying on behalf of the interests of the largest members of the NCBA like Cargill, McDonalds, and Tyson Foods.

• One example of how the NCBA has lobbied against the interest of the everyday farmer is the successful lobbying efforts the organization leveraged to repeal the mandatory country of origin labeling laws (COOL Act). The COOL Act effectively allows foreign beef providers to label their products a ‘Product of the USA’ on the pretext of simply packaging the beef in the US. This lack of transparency in the industry has hurt the everyday farmer’s ability to compete on an equal playing field with large foreign beef providers.

• The checkoff program forces ranchers to effectively pay a tax to an organization without having much accountability on how resources are allocated, particularly as it relates to lobbying efforts. The new farm bill though has introduced the OFF Act (Opportunities for Fairness in Farming) to establish a level of accountability on how money within the checkoff programs is being spent.

As Will said in his OpEd:

“The OFF Act would show farmers where our tax dollars are going and ensure we’re not funding our own downfall.”

⚡️ Weekly Challenge: Cooking the Perfect Steak

It’s really, really important to learn how to cook the perfect steak if you are in fact choosing to eat a lot of steak. To me, the perfect steak somehow manages to create the perfect sear (aka a nice crisp crust), while also maintaining a perfect medium-rare interior. Note: My medium rare is often called rare by most people’s standards.

The importance of knowing how to create culinary perfection in less than 10 minutes with nothing more than a steak, some salt, some butter, and a very hot pan, is essential regardless of who you are. If you’re a young man, maybe this will help you impress a lady. If you’re a young lady, maybe this will help you impress a young man. If you’re an old man, maybe this will help you feel young again. Regardless, we must teach you how to cook the perfect steak. Here we go:

Step 1: Getting the right steak - if you’re really looking to impress someone or treat yourself, grab yourself a thick ribeye or New York Strip.

Step 2: Preparation - before you get too excited we need to salt and dry brine your steak - this is the key to the perfect sear. Liberally salt your steak and then let it sit in your freezer from anywhere from 2 to 48 hours (the closer to 48 hours you go the richer flavor you’ll get). Once you’re ready to cook the steak, let it sit out on the counter for 2-3 hours or until it reaches room temperature.

Step 3: Cooking - grab you carbon steel pan, turn the stovetop heat to high, and without applying any oils or butter (trust me) place your steak in the pan. I can’t emphasize this enough - it’s CRITICAL you allow your pan to reach peak heat before you put your steak on the pan. You should see some smoke coming from the pan if you’re doing it right. Cook the steak for 4 minutes per side, and then drop the heat to low, drop some butter in the pan and baste the butter all over your steak for about a minute per side.

Step 4: Enjoy! - remove the steak from the pan and allow it to sit out for 3-5 minutes before cutting into it. You should notice a nice crispy crust matched perfectly with a juicy red interior. Perfection!

⏱ The Mafia Week in Review

1. Raw Milk & Deadlifts: The Life-Changing Power of Raw Milk: Tommy and Luke from the legendary social media channel Raw Milk & Deadlifts joined us on the podcast on Monday. We had a fantastic conversation about the nutritional benefits of raw milk and food freedom, and we sprinkled in some stories about our faith as well.

2. Jen Gottlieb: Self-Mastery & The Spirit of Growth: Have you ever talked to someone and felt a spark? That’s the type of energy Jen brings into every room. She says it herself, but her goal is to become the #1 female speaker in the world, and this conversation will show you how she’s going to make that happen.

3. Raw Milk Ice Cream Recipe: This man is a sorcerer. A wizard. A magician of some sorts. Chef Kasey has been putting his heart and soul into this raw milk ice cream series and he NEEDS you to try one of these recipes ASAP.

 🔥 What We Are Consuming

1. The Carnivore Bar has been a longtime favorite snack food of The Meat Mafia, and for good reason. It’s quite literally the perfect meal replacement for people on the go. The simple ingredients - beef, tallow, and salt, make it incredibly healthy and nutrient-dense, plus it tastes great. I ate these bars for 8 days straight on a road trip from Austin to Washington DC. If you’re on the run all the time, you’ve got to check out this pemmican delight.

   Use our code ‘MEATMAFIA’ to get 10% off your order 🥩

2. The Complete Carnivore Diet for Beginners by Judy Cho: We’ll put this simply - if you want to experiment with a Carnivore Diet, you must get yourself a copy of this book. It’s simple, effective, and breaks down everything you need to know to get going.