Cultural Analysis of Sugar substitutes: Health controversy over perceived benefits

Cultural Analysis of Sugar substitutes: Health controversy over perceived benefits

I chose to culturally analyze "Sugar substitutes: Heath controversy over perceived benefits" through the use of Writing Public Lives. In this blog post, I am going to culturally analyze this article by using cultural keywords which will eventually lead to my thesis.

Obesity

Obesity is important to the culture in the article because obesity is a disease that plagues the U.S. It develops the argument because sugar contributes to obesity. An audience might be able to support this argument because obesity is occurring all around us; it is visible to the eye. The fact that sugar consumption contributes to obesity means that people might want to be more cautious about sugar in order to decrease the obesity rate. Also, artifical sweeteners tend to be used by those who are obese due to the lower caloric intake. However, the artificial sweeteners cause many problems, such as, lowered metabolism.

Type II Diabetes

Type II Diabetes is important to the culture in the article because sugar consumption contributes to Type II Diabetes. Therefore, it develops the argument because sugar increases a person's likelihood of developing this. An audience might be able to support this because people know that Type II Diabetes is all around us, but they might not know the probable cause; now that sugar could be the culprit, all eyes will be on how sugar is harmful. Diabetics tend to eat artificial sugars in order to replace real sugar due to the lower glycemic index in it, allows blood sugar to stay more steady.

PunchingJudy. "Artificial Sweetener" 5/10/09 via flickr.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Flavor

Flavor is important to capture the culture in the article because people consume sugar due to its taste. People tend to eat foods that are higher in sugar. Therefore, it develops the arguments because sugary foods tend to be more appealing to people than foods that are low in sugar. An audience might be able to support this because people know that the sweet flavor of sugar is appealing. Also, they might be able to argue how they do not realize that there are many artificial sweeteners because they taste the same.

Thesis

Despite artificial sweeteners' perceived benefits, there are many more health hazards.

This would be a good thesis because the article talks about the benefits of the artificial sweeteners first. Then, it goes in depth about the negatives and health hazards. These health risks are severe and are very harmful. Ultimately, the author wants us to be aware that these sugars are good in a sense, but they are short-lived benefits that could lead to a terrible outcome.