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:

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate