An article in Fortune cited that 2016 may be remembered as the year that the image of sugar officially turned. “Sugar is the new tobacco” in the minds of the public, says David Turner, a global food and drink analyst. Despite this, sugar is still being excessively consumed by Americans, and Big Food is running into the problem that their industry is built on sugar “making it a more than $100 billion market.” So what now? The quest to find low-calorie sweeteners has ultimately failed to find or create anything as good as real sugar. Stevia recently looked to be the answer, but it’s still not quite the same and thus hasn’t taken hold of the market. There is some very interesting science happening in order to get to the bottom of how we can find a or make a sugar alternative that consumers will actually like as much as sugar, but that won’t cause the health problems the nation continues to face.

The obvious solution seems to be that Americans just need to eat less sugar. The more you move away from sugar, the less expectation you will have for something to be sweet. Like any change on a large scale, however, this is not as simple a solution as it seems. Read the article and let us know your thoughts!