By Dean L. Jones

It is refreshing to hear famous people speaking their real mind in lieu of trying to be politically correct.  Recently, Tom Brady, four-time Super Bowl Champion Quarterback returned some heat to Boston Magazine who called his business partner a “glorified snake-oil salesman.”

Tom Brady said, “I disagree with a lot of things that people tell you to do.  You’ll probably go out and drink Coca-Cola and think, ‘Oh yeah, that’s no problem.’ Why?  Because they pay lots of money for advertisements to think that you should drink Coca-Cola for a living?   No, I totally disagree with that.  And when people do that, I think that’s quackery.  And the fact that they can sell that to kids?  I mean, that’s poison for kids. But they keep doing it.”

I found this really cool because outing the world’s largest liquid sugar seller is something that most famous folks would never do, even if they know the truth.  Tom Brady did not stop at Coca Cola, where he also went on to say, “I think we’ve been lied to by a lot of food companies over the years, by a lot of beverage companies over the years.  But we still do it.  That’s just America, and that’s what we’ve been conditioned to.  We believe that Frosted Flakes is a food.  You just keep eating those things and you keep wondering why we have just incredible rates of disease in our country.  No one thinks it has anything to do with what we put in our body.”

I extend high marks to Tom Brady, mainly due to how excessive sugar consumption is the leading cause to several health problems, particularly chronic ones like diabetes, hypertension and cancer, including breast cancer.  Added sugars hide in 74% of processed foods under more than 60 different names, and such foodstuffs are created in a laboratory to sell more products.

Being made in a laboratory is not something companies brag about. which is why Tom Brady’s remarks only raised a tiny response presumably hoping that it would quietly go away.  A Coca-Cola Company spokesperson offered a response to Brady’s comments by calling itself a “responsible beverage company and marketer.”  As a responsible beverage company and marketer, we prominently provide calorie and sugar information for our beverages so people can choose what makes sense for them and their families.”

It would great if more role models spoke out during October’s breast cancer month to recognize how good dietary behaviors can prevent this most common cancer among women.  Celebrities are taught that elevated consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with higher breast density, a strong risk factor for breast cancer.  Uncalled for consumption of sweetened loaded foodstuff is also associated with higher density breasts among postmenopausal women.  In view of that, cancer prevention consists of living SugarAlert!

www.SugarAlert.com
Mr. Jones is a marketing strategist with the Southland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization