WEBVTT - The Candy Corn Menace 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.000 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. We're 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:21.120 all decked out for Halloween. One of four Halloween episodes 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.360 that we're doing. And if it's not Halloween and you're listening, 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.840 I mean, keep going, because these are good anytime, but 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.880 but we're particularly excited about these topics because we get 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.760 to hie them in with our Halloween enthusiasm. In fact 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.200 that we were recording this in costume. Um, Julie, would 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.000 you describe your costume? Um? Well, it's kind of hard 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:43.040 to describe because I think I just look very uh well, 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.440 I mean I've got a lot of stainless steel surrounding 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.960 me right now, yes, and people keep dumping vegetables into me, 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.440 and then like two hours later, I produce a substance. 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.640 Can you guess what I am? Um? You're do? You 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:58.520 look kind of like a robot with soup on you? 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.320 But I thought was the costume like a super robot 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:07.280 that wasn't very like complex and just kept spilling my soup? Yeah? 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.880 Right now now I'm the Chloeac Machine. Oh, that's gross. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:17.440 I know. Yeah, it's a it's a terrifying, uh Halloween costume, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:19.760 which we will describe a little and a little more 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:21.720 detail at the end of this this podcast. And we 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.640 but we mentioned it in a previous one about digesting robots. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.520 So you are a digesting robot more like the pooping duck. 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:30.800 And and just to make everybody feel better, there's some 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.000 actual stuff produced by me. But if you had like 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.120 brought in some like soft served chocolate ice cream, that 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.280 would have been appropriate based on the pictures I've seen 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:43.240 of the poop that the Cloaca bot produces. Yes, yes, yes, gosh, 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.919 now you've told everybody in my secret. Okay, so you 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.840 you're sitting over there eating your your Halloween candy. What 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.720 are you? I am? Humpty hump See you noticed the 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.400 glasses and the large fig nos in the first from 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.080 you know, Digital Underground, right, I thought I thought it 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:01.280 was just Wednesday. Now this is my Humpty costume. UM 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.440 A big big fan from way back, especially the Digital 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:09.600 Underground cameo with tupac in um that horrible dan ackroid 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.720 movie Nothing but Trouble. Oh goodness, I have to say 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.320 that I have not seen that it was like Danacroid's 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.480 pet project and and God bless him, it's it's it's 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.400 a horrible film that Gimmy Moore in it and uh 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.880 Chevy Chase, and it's just it's very Halloween theme, like 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.800 a kind of a haunted house and all these grotesque 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.440 characters running around and not really funny at all. And 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.280 then there's just this huge theme or digital underground is 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:37.040 is brought before the the the Evil Judge, one of 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.560 like eighteen characters played by Dan Ackroyd in this, and 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.720 then they're made to perform that sounds like the result 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.200 of too much money, too much time, and too many stimulants. 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.120 So speaking of yes, speaking of stimulants. Not not too 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.200 much time, time or money, but stimulants, speaking stimulants. So 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:56.720 we're of course talking about it's Halloween. You think Halloween, 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.360 you think Halloween. Candy. The topic of this particular podcast 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.399 the candy Cordinace, and we're we're not just talking about 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.800 candy corn, but about various candies and just sugar in 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:11.480 general as a is a childhood obsession and to a 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.000 certain extent, and adulthood obsession as well. Yeah, Yeah, why 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.239 kids are so transfixed and why we are too. Why 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.520 we continue to be just sort of going to that 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.400 siren call of candy except for candy corn, for me, 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.080 for you. I'm in the camp of hating candy corn. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.520 I don't think it really should exist other than to 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:37.800 create little things with um way abomination. Well, I this 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.760 was we're talking about this yesterday and I I asked 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.800 people on the house stuff Works main Facebook page. I 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:45.880 was like, hey, guys, what's what's your favorite candy and 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:47.800 what candies? How do we tip candies do you find 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:53.200 is particularly vile? And a number of people mentioned candy corn. Uh. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.360 At least one person mentioned my least favorite candy, which 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.800 happens to be circus peanuts, which are you know those 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.440 giants like they I guess they kind of they're kind 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.200 of molded to look like a giant swollen peanut. But 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.240 it's made of some are thought you're going to say 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:13.880 something else, some sort of orange spongy material that may 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.080 or may not be food but is ingested. It's it's 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.760 it's really grim And then uh, I asked my wife 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:25.840 and she she mentioned Boston beans. It's like who would 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.120 name a candy buston? And then and then there we'll 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.839 talk about some other disgusting candies as we we go forth, 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.719 and and also maybe candies that are not all that 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.280 disgusting as far as their taste may go, but there 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.720 their marketing has been some questionable and uh and if 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:44.520 I had to pick one though that I'm not really 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.440 a candy eater anymore. And this is something we're gonna 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.920 talk about, how adults tend to move more and more 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.080 away from candy while children cannot get enough. I will 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.800 occasionally have a hankering for some Twizzlers. Ah yeah, and 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:58.840 I bet that it's probably that that time of the 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.240 day when you're Circadian the self dropped right, and you 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:05.480 need an easy pick up Twizzler o'clock, Twizzler o'clock, three o'clock. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.080 I see them on your desk, not on them. Yeah, 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.760 well no, you don't. Don't. Don't make the listeners, especially 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.280 my wife, think that I'm pulling out twisted every afternoon 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.719 from your little safe underneath your desk. I don't know 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:21.240 what else is in there, the Twizzler safe. Yeah well, okay, great, 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.920 now I've got explaining to do. But but anyway, so 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.279 let's let's move on. So why are kids so into 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.279 candy like Why are they because they were just obsessed 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:31.800 with it? Well, we should probably talk about it from 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.359 evolutionary perspective. Yes, yeah, let's let's because if they're craving it, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.640 there's there's something at work there. We tend not to 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.719 crave things unless we need it on some level. So, 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.919 so on a very basic level, like what is sugar about? 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.600 As a structural material, sugar is involved in just about 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.000 every aspect of our biology. It's involved in recognizing pathogens, 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.159 blood clotting, enabling sperm to penetrate the ovum, regulating the 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:59.120 half life of hormones, directing embriyonic development, acting as an 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.960 address code for directing traffic of various cells and proteins. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.520 Of course, this doesn't mean that it's it's a good nutrient, 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.640 like it's it's right when it comes to uh that 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.440 it's like mostly calories and no vitamins, no fiber, and 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.479 it's liking the good stuff you'll find and things like apples, oranges, oranges, 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.320 other fruits that deliver sugar, but also other helpful things. Yeah, 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.000 when we talk about sugar, we should probably acknowledge that, right, So, yeah, 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.440 definitely fruits carry that. So it's it's an easy, quick 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.000 burst of energy. Yes, you've got you know glucose, and 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.520 glucose is quite a prize when you're surviving in an 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.279 environment where food is hard to come by. Right, So 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.839 if you came upon an apple, that would be great. Although, 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:39.560 of course apple has fiber, so it's gonna full you 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.320 up a little bit more. Just from a evolutionary perspective, 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.120 we know that this would be important for us having 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.560 a leg up in the survival game. Right. It gives 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:49.360 you a little boost. Uh. And if we if we've 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:53.480 discussed in our one of our previous topics about decision fatigue, 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.559 that boost is not just like a physical energy boost 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.360 that can also help you in your ability to navigate 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.400 the world around you to figure out what choice you're 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.800 gonna make. Are you gonna when when you're running from 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.880 that sudden sabretooth tiger attack, are you gonna Are you 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:08.919 gonna run towards the rock or you're gonna run towards 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.720 the tree. Maybe that fruit you just date off the 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.080 ground is going to give you the mental leg up 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.880 you need to know which place is gonna mean your survival. Yeah, yeah, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.040 And you brought this up the other day when we 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.640 were just sort of casually talking about the topic about 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.280 how it really does help your decision making abilities, especially 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.320 in the context of decision fatigue, which we talked about before, 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.240 and we talked about a study there where the judges 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.200 were becoming extremely fatigued and they were making decisions that were, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.520 you know, essentially just kind of putting off the parole 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.360 decision that they were trying to make. And they found 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:46.680 that when the judges were given a quick burst of 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:49.600 sugar in the form of fruits, that all of a sudden, 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:53.040 their decision making came back online. So it makes you 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.280 think that that like, especially in the courtroom and basically 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.920 need a big hummingbird feeder full of sugar water for 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.440 for the judges. Yeah, I mean, really, if you've got 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.520 a case at three o'clock in the afternoon, you should 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.520 probably bring a snack for the judge, although you need 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.560 to clear it with the security guard first. Yeah, that 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.000 would be bad form if you did not. So let's 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.640 go in the way back machine and look at prohibition 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.400 and how actually, wait, we just traveled back into the past. 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.280 So aren't we going forward at this point? Oh we are, Well, 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.360 we were still in the way back machine. But anyway, 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.280 well yeah, okay, let's go in the way back and 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.760 forth machine. Okay, that works as forwarding. Then from the 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:36.160 saber tooth, tiger dodging, ground fruit eating caveman dates and 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:40.600 now we're prohibition. Yea, everybody's doing to Charleston biglebee gowns 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:45.080 are being worn, and alcohol is getting itself. Um and 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.520 in the United States, that's right, it's not as readily available. 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.320 So what do they find is happening? They find that uh, 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:57.120 candy like nickel nips no tittering please, these are wax 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.160 bottles with sugar sort up become really popular growing probe 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.280 and these are still around. Um. I picked them up 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.199 as a novelty a few years back to take to 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.720 uh Mystery sent theater night, which I get to every week, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:11.480 and used to we would have more of an emphasis 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.800 on absurd candies like nerds, rope and stuff. But we 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.200 got over that because we're older and wiser. But but 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.120 I remember bringing some of those and they're they're just 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.360 really gross. I mean, I guess, like I say, I'm 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.520 I'm I'm approaching this as as a non for the 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.120 most part, a non candy person. So kids, I'm sure 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.199 we'll still find them very exciting because it's like this 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.400 little wax bottle filled with something that is it's a 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.760 liquid and I guess it's like colored sugar water kind 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:40.599 of a thing, some sort of weird syrup. And I 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.719 actually thought about picking them up for this podcast, but 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:45.240 we record in the morning, and I was gonna have 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.319 to pick them up in the morning, and I might 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:51.480 get arrested if I'm seen buying what are these called again, uh, 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.040 nickel nips, nickel nips, Or I go into a store 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.160 asking for nickel nips at eight am. You're probably have 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:58.960 to go to a specific store for this. I don't 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.760 think that this is just a your corner drug store. Yeah, 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:03.240 and they're available now, but I don't know if they 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:05.520 make them anymore. Like have this suspicion that candies like 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.640 nickel nips and Circus peanuts that they haven't been made 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:11.839 in decades. They just made enough of them and the 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.000 consumption rate is so low. But you know, if you 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.719 open a new drug store and you're just issued some 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.400 nickel nips and some Boston beans and some Circus peanuts, 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:22.880 and then and they're like, all right, you got your candy. 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:27.080 It's like government issues subsidized a shelf light of five years. 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.000 We've got to get rid of them. But yeah, I mean, 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.679 this is what people were tipping back in lieu of 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.360 alcohol because it was giving them a sugar rush, and 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.200 people were to eat drinking like massive amounts of alcohol 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.079 before prohibition. That's one thing to to keep in mind. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:41.800 It's not just an issue of like, oh well, we 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.520 were drinking and then we had this brief period where 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.400 we cut back because it was illegal, and then we 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.720 were right back where we started. According to Ken Burns, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.840 who currently or by the time they sit airs, they 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:54.400 may have varied the entire mini series. Have the new 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.199 mini series Prohibition that goes into great detail about the 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.760 roots of prohibition and then uh, you know, draw parallels 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.880 to current political climates. And he pointed out before prohibition, 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.120 the average person was consuming somewhere between ninety and a 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:15.199 hundred and eighty bottles per year of alcohol. Okay, so 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.000 a lot of that booze is going to have a 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.000 fair amount of sugar in it. Yeah, yeah, and so 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:22.400 we know right exactly, So it's sort of a double whammy. 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.040 And we know that with the sugar rush and with 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.640 alcohol that it's going to start affecting the reward center 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.439 of our brain. Right, So this is obviously why we 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:33.679 keep coming back to it time and time and again, 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.160 and that's why during that time period it was viewed 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.120 as an epidemic. So let's talk about the reward center 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.240 and candy. Basically, we have sugar causing the release of 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.840 dopamine in the nucleus incumbents old friend nucleus that combins 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:47.760 which I see, I feel like we talked about a 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.440 lot lately, um delivering the classic sugar high. So Neurosciences 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:55.040 Behavioral Review reports that binging on sugar stimulates the same 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:59.679 euphoric pathway targeted by hardcore drugs like cocaine and can 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:04.679 cause similar withdrawal, craving, and cross sensitilization. So it's no 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.040 wonder that one of the slang terms for cocaine is 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.120 nose candy. Oh yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's the same 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.679 ding ding in the brain. Not to be confused with 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.600 ding dongs, which are like a there's not definitely a candy, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.120 I guess, but a a junk sweet food, yes, yes. 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.000 And another thing though, to keep in mind about prohibition 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:25.880 real quick is that the alcohol makers and the and 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.800 the brewers a lot of them found themselves unable to 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.920 legally produce alcohol, so they turned their attention to creating 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.600 candies or sugary sodas. That's right. Yeah. So so suddenly 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:38.120 a lot of the guys that were in the business 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:42.680 of giving you your alcohol were now saying, well, that's illegal, 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:47.120 but we have orange soda like crazy, so drink this instead, right, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.439 and you can get a quick little high and system. Yeah. 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:52.920 So it's the new drug ar Okay. So back in 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.040 the time machine a little bit forward here the Great Depression, 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:01.200 and then now you see candy being come completely marketed 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.439 in another way. Right, So, as you mentioned, it was 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.800 in the form of Kula's. But now, I mean, resources 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.920 are seriously scarce and people are not able to actually 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.040 buy a full meal or make a full meal for 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.400 themselves or their families. So they go to the store 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:21.160 and they buy themselves a chicken dinner candy bar. That 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.640 is truth. That sounds at all I like, I looked 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.000 it up. You can if you do a Google imag 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.480 search on chicken Dinner candy bar, you will find images 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.760 of this this awesome and terrifying like like like you 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.360 as you stress that it was not flavored like a 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.280 chicken dinner. This is not like the candy that they 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.000 have in uh In Willy Wonka that tastes like a 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.240 seven course meal. It's just a candy bar. The gimmick 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.880 here is, Hey, you don't have time or money, um 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.400 et cetera to have an actual chicken dinner, buy a 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.559 candy bar instead. Right, And according to Beth Camerly Issues, 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.600 the author of Candy the Sweet History, that the package 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.959 actually had a picture of a coasted chicken with like 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.600 steam coming off of it, which again it's just sounds 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.360 kind of awful and disgusting, but they were trying to 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.199 to to market this as healthy and inexpensive. Hearing that, 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.120 on one level, I'm like, oh my goodness, what an 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.720 unenlightened age, or you know, or I want to make 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.080 you know judgments about about the differences. But you go 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:20.720 to the store now and you have all these things 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.560 like the like the cliff bars, and various diet and 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.640 energy bars, and and those may not be marketed as 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.480 here is a substitute for your dinner, but but it 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.200 is very much the idea of here is the equivalent 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.440 of a meal or huge energy punch in bar form. Well, yeah, 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:40.680 but you can also look at fast food joints and 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.480 you can you know, the dollar menu is a good example, right, 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.640 so they have um, you know obviously like there's much 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:48.840 more protein, there's much more to this in terms of 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.440 what a person is consuming. That it's the same idea 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.040 of here's this healthy and inexpensive thing, it's a dollar 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:58.200 when in fact it's something that's unhealthy and it's very 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.680 much subsidized and may have basically come out of a 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:05.160 clot Well we'll see, we'll see in two hours. But 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.160 you know that the same sort of idea exists, right, Like, 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.400 whatever you have at your disposal at that time, you've 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.000 got candy, let's market it as something that's going to 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.000 satiate your appetite. So candy has just kind of morphed 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.920 a little bit, you know, through history in terms of 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.080 how people have perceived it. But I do really love 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.520 the fact that it was that this package, this roosted 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:31.400 chicken on a package was was like as if you 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.000 just put it right there, then you would believe it, 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:34.760 I'm going to eat this chicken. But I also think 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:36.800 that it points to how dire the circumstances were at 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.680 the time. Now you you mentioned the fast food, and 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.280 it is important to mention that this sort of stereotypical 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.440 the average fast food meal. As we can see, it 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.520 does pack a huge sugar punch in the form of 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:54.120 a supersized cola drink. Yeah that's true. Um well, and 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.480 also additives to right depending on what you're getting. Okay, 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.240 so let's let's talk about kids, why they are such 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.680 candy fiends and how honestly they can't help themselves. All right, well, 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.800 we let's take a quick break, and when we come back, 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:12.520 we will discuss these little monsters. This podcast is brought 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.880 to you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and the 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:20.280 Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is the spark 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.520 which drives innovation. Join us at curiosity dot com and 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:30.600 explore the answers to life's questions. All right, then we're back, 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.680 uh so on the issue of children and candy. One 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.120 of the memory that always comes to my mind is 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.680 that there was this uh about mitzvah that my my 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.760 wife shot and she's a photographer. She was shooting this 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:45.400 thing and I came along to do some on site 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:50.080 printing for the guests, and so you had this entire 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.720 room just filled with little girls, and they had all 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.520 the like their their snack bar slash lunch dinner bar 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:58.080 or whatever you got time to day it was, but 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.480 it was just loaded with things like uh, you know 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:02.880 Ben and Jerry's ice cream and all sorts of sweets 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.200 to put on it, and then like a cupcake fountain. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:07.520 that kind of thing. I mean then of course like 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.000 pizza and and other kind of kid friendly foods as well. 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:12.760 But they were just crazy on sugar and they were 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.159 just running around and they would just swoop into the 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:16.880 photo booth that we had set up and they would 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.720 just go crazy for these photos. I would remember thinking, Wow, 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.280 these kids are insane, and it was just because they 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.240 were just getting a NonStop rush of sugar. They were 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.080 just doing more sugar every five minutes. And what's really 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.840 it's really funny if the kid doesn't actually belong to 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.439 you and you just get to observe it. But especially 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.760 with little girls because in those circumstances, because he usually 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.119 have dresses on with crinolines and stuff, and then all 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.960 of a sudden, like they there's like a wrestling pile 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.639 of them and they're just so high on sugar and 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:45.639 they start beating each other up, at least with the 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.880 parties I've been too, they're all like little Hull Colgan's. 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.000 But yes, I mean this is this is the result 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.760 of sugar. It creates a even the most docile child 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.480 becomes a sort of whole Cogan up kid, right right. 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.600 And it's interesting that you mentioned the whole cogan thing 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.600 because of course we think of whole coke and we 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.520 think hulking up. We think of muscles and bones, um 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.919 and uh and and that's actually linked to this uh 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.680 we we think um, they're The theory is that that 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.680 a lot of this um, this sugar craving is linked 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.000 to rapid grown bone growth, that they're hardwired to it 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:26.359 because growing bones secrete hormones that influence metabolism, and we 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:28.960 know that other metaball hormones are like left in and 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.159 insulin um, connect on areas of the brain that control 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.480 cravings and appetites and even directly behind the tongue where 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.560 they affect the preference for sweet tas, which is fascinating, 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.239 right because what they found, um, this is from an 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.960 article from mp ARE called Kids Sugar Craving maybe biological, 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.760 is that they found that kids actually have a different 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.800 taste landscape. I guess you could say, yes, yeah, this 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.640 is what really like sensory sen pete really yeah. Yeah. 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.200 They they referred to it as kids living in a 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.640 different since reworld than adults. Yeah, it was. So it's 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.480 I mean, it's just like the entire world is turned 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.800 slightly on its head when it comes to what tastes 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.119 good and what doesn't. Yeah, it's very different from an adult. 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:15.480 Researcher Julie Manella of the Monell Chemical Census Center says, quote, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.800 kids prefer much more intense sweetness and saltiness than the 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.960 adult and it doesn't decrease until late adolescents. And we 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.320 have some evidence that they may be more sensitive to 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:28.080 bitter taste. So when Manella's researchers studied this, that they 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.920 did as they gave adults a sucrose and water solution 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:34.960 that was on part of like your average cola, okay, 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:37.680 and so that that was kind of the extent that 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.119 the adults wanted their sugar. They didn't want it anymore, 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:42.240 They didn't want it really any less. Kids, on the 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.879 other hand, prefer twice the amount of sugar, and then 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.320 younger children had absolutely no limit when it came to 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:50.600 the amount of sugar that was put in the solution 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.200 and keep dumping it in until the solution cannot hold 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.560 more sugar before it just becomes a big container of 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.480 damp sugar. Yeah, they were all like heavy on the 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:02.200 sugar and lead on the water, if you know what 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:04.880 I mean. Wink wink um. So I mean that gives 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:06.960 you a clue right there. That Yes, that's a different 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.200 sensory palette, which leads us this whole idea that it 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.920 is hardwired that for a kid surviving, particularly back in 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.080 the way back, way back day, right, Yeah, the sugar 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.800 would give them an advantage. Yeah, I mean it makes 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.359 me think back to Halloween bag of candy days, and 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.080 I mean I would just over a few days, I 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.680 would eat all the candy. Yeah. It was like, look, 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.359 if you gave me a sack of Tutsi rolls and 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.159 told me to eat them, now, there's no telling how 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.320 sick I would become. Right, there would have to be 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.119 like some sort of five rewards, right they would have. 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.320 It would be a pretty serious endeavor. But you had 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.880 a bag of Tutsi rolls to like a six year old, 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.960 they're like that. They won't even blink an eye. Oh no, 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.240 Like I remember Halloween's in my candy stash and my 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.879 pillow case and being horribly protective of it because I 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.359 thought that my brother was going to rate it. So 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.160