Sugar: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

"cranberries taste like cherries that hate you" I need that on a shirt

As an American, I cannot stress enough how much I wish I learned metric so I don't have to measure in circus peanuts

"'Let's improve the taste by adding sugar' instead of 'let's improve the taste by removing the clam'". I've been laughing for a solid 6 minutes.

Dropped sugary drinks from my diet and pretty much instantly lost 20 pounds, sugar definitely is a major contributor

The fact that the National Frozen Pizza Institute is a real thing baffles me more than Sexy John Oliver does.

"Orange, misshapen, and lumpy" I certainly can think of a president that matches that description.

"Sexy" John Oliver costume? That's just regular John Oliver

The first time I visited the US I was shocked to find out how sweet their snacks and drinks really are, compared to their European or Asian counterparts. This certainly explains things.

If you're from a different country the "savoury" food in America is obscenely sweet.

That sexy costume of John Oliver made me realize he could be wearing no pants under that desk.

A skittle weighs 1g, so I've been measuring sugar content in skittles. e.g., a can of pepsi contains 27 skittles worth of sugar.

Seattle has a sugar tax. Less sugar equates to cheaper drinks.

There is a national frozen pizza association?!?!

As someone who, yes, is obese and fighting diabetes, I can honestly say that cutting sugar out of my diet has been instrumental in the improvement of my overall health and, frankly, going into a supermarket and seeing how much sugar and carbohydrates are in everything is both frightening and disheartening

The big thing to keep in mind is that grams are a measurement of weight, whereas teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups are approximate measure of volume. And Volume is the measure of how much space is being taken up. For example, when pulling espresso shots, they are always weighed in grams. This is because of the fact that the weight and thickness of the crema on top can vary widely from shot to shot. Measuring in grams solves this problem because you account for the total amount of liquid in the cup, rather than telling you how much space the liquid takes up. The same thing applies to the nutrition index, you are accounting for the total weight of each ingredient in the food, rather than how much space the ingredient is taking up.

The imperial system is all fun and games until you gotta measure chemicals with circus peanuts

"Cranberries taste like cherries who hate you." So true.

Watching this in 2016 after the FDA has changed their label to include added sugars. John Oliver making things happen.

John Oliver: "Noone understands the metric system." Meanwhile me in Europe: "I wonder what's my weight in teaspoons..."

Even though it's only been a few years, I can't imagine the food labels without the added sugar row now. This video reminded me of just how recently that has been added. I look at it for literally every piece of packaged food I buy.