Eighty percent of the food in America has added sugar. Sugar is the leading cause for diabetes and obesity, a slow plague that has been hitting the nation. This, of course, isn’t new information.

Burger King, Panda Express, Starbucks, Togo’s and Round Table all have two things in common: they’re on the Sacramento State campus and they are corporations that feed into capitalist America and what they want the public to consume. The reason all these places are on campus is because they know they have plenty of hungry and busy consumers that will keep adding millions into their corporations and CEO paychecks.

Sugar is a normal ingredient added into most of the food sold on campus and in at least half of the aisles at the grocery store. The endorphins in the brain that are activated by sugar are the same ones activated when consuming cocaine and heroine. Although getting sugar is much easier than getting drugs, and their addictive comparisons seem to be far off, it doesn’t mean sugar is any less unhealthy for the body than drugs.

Sugar can be just as addictive as drugs, people often feel the need to have that can of soda (44 grams of sugar in Coke) or that Snickers bar (27 grams). Cravings for a specific brand or type of food is the start of consumers falling into the trap of the restaurants and food corporations that help make capitalist America thrive, but only for some people.

The workers that work tirelessly in hot kitchens getting paid minimum wage aren’t reaping the benefits of an added bonus on their paychecks, it’s the CEOs that get the most profits sitting in a comfortable leather chair behind a large wooden desk, probably overlooking a beautiful cityscape. At least they are nice enough to give workers a great view of the processed meats and bagged vegetables that are as fresh as that sounds.

Even though corporations induce the amount of sugar intake through their products, they aren’t responsible for the consumption of the products. That responsibility rests on the consumer’s shoulders, because they don’t force anything, only induce.

It is really up to the consumers, the people that make the gears on capitalism keep turning, the oil that allows the gears to stay loose and never rust. The people who run the country don’t want to change the system because they are on top profiting from it, while the people who fall in-between make it possible.

Yes, the easy and cheap access to these products cater to college students whom most only make minimum wage and have to work through college, but just by picking up an apple instead of a muffin at Starbucks reduces unnatural and added sugar intake.

Maybe there isn’t much we can do to lower the amount of advertisements seen inducing all the high sugar products, because nobody can just take an eraser and get rid of the heart of the nation’s economy. It’s up to individuals to be informed and to take action, starting with their own lives and being aware of the unnatural processed substances they put in their bodies, because corporations don’t care about unhealthy citizens unless it means they will stop putting money in their pockets.