Opinion The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 4 — Thursday, February 6, 2020 Alanna Berger Zack Blumberg Brittany Bowman Emily Considine Cheryn Hong Krystal Hur Ethan Kessler Mary Rolfes Michael Russo Timothy Spurlin Miles Stephenson Joel Weiner Erin White Lola Yang ERIN WHITE Managing Editor Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. ELIZABETH LAWRENCE Editor in Chief EMILY CONSIDINE AND MILES STEPHENSON Editorial Page Editors Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS EMILY ULRICH | COLUMN A sweet tooth’s worst nightmare C an sugar make you dumb? I wish I would have thought about this question before studying for my last chemistry exam. It was around 9 p.m., and I was in the newly-remodeled LSA building on campus. It was getting to that point in the night when you keep re-reading the same problem over and over again and seem to retain nothing. I needed something to wake me up. I decided to check out the self- service cafe in the lobby for a study snack to get me through the next practice exam. I was torn between Sour Patch Kids and dried apple chips. Faithfully, I chose the Sour Patch Kids since they had succeeded in giving me that late-night sugar boost in the past. The brain uses sugar in the form of glucose as its main food source. When you have low blood sugar, your brain loses its energy to function. I knew my brain needed some food, but was I overdosing on sugar by choosing the Sour Patch Kids? According to the American Heart Association, the maximum daily sugar intake for men is 36 grams and for women is 25 grams. We are all overdosing on sugar. The 2 tablespoons of Nutella that you spread on your toast this morning contained 21 grams of sugar in it; for females, that is 84 percent of your daily sugar intake already wasted on one piece of toast. According to research performed by Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, a long-term high- fructose diet affects the brain’s ability to learn and remember information. Gomez-Pinilla studied how a variety of genes in the brain can be damaged by fructose. In Gomez-Pinilla’s study, rats were trained to escape from a maze and then divided into three groups. The first group drank fructose and had no Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in their diet. DHA is a type of omega-3 fatty acid that is essential in the brain. The second group drank fructose water and was fed a DHA-rich diet. The third group drank non-fructose water and had no DHA-rich diet. When the rats were put through the maze again, the rats that drank fructose water with no DHA-rich diet took twice as long to complete the maze compared to the rats from the other two groups. The memory of these rats was clearly impaired by the fructose in their diet and lack of DHA; it seems that fructose could lessen the effects of DHA. Another research study on sugar performed at Aarhus University in Denmark found that sugar intake can alter the reward-processing circuitry of the brain in a way similar to addictive drugs. After just 12 days of sugar intake, the dopamine and opioid systems in the brain change. The sugar craving becomes more like an addiction, making it hard to replace that late-night sugary snack with something nutritious. We are directed by our brains to seek pleasure and avoid pain, whether that be the pain of withdrawal or the aftertaste of collard greens. It can be difficult to resist sugar especially when it is all around you — from donut sales in Mason Hall to jungle juice at parties to chocolate chip cookies at Mosher-Jordan Residence Hall’s dining hall. So where do we go from here? The first option is substitution. We all get that sweet tooth every once in a while, but how we choose to satisfy the sugar craving makes all the difference. Instead of grabbing candy, try a piece of fruit. This way you can still get your sugar fix, but without overdosing on added sugars. Another option is incorporating more DHA-rich foods into your diet. These include walnuts, salmon, edamame and kidney beans. A diet rich in DHA can counteract the sugar, increasing learning and memory by strengthening the synapses within the brain. For the risk-takers, another option is to challenge yourself to a sugar detox. Sure, sugar overdosing probably does not fully account for failing an exam, but I do think there is enough evidence to convince me to put down the Sour Patch Kids and reach for a healthier alternative next time I’m struggling to keep my brain working through a practice exam late at night. Emily Ulrich can be reached at emulrich@umich.edu. SHAD JEFFREY II | COLUMN What music will define the 2010s? W hen I was younger, I used to listen to music from different decades with family members based on what they grew up listening to. The 1950s and ’60s with my grandparents, the 1970s and ’80s with my parents, the 1990s and 2000s with my older sister. It was easy for me to separate music chronologically, based on the sounds I heard alone — my ear had been trained to differentiate the hard feedback of the Rolling Stones’ recordings from the soft vocals of The Eagles, and the upbeat rhythm of ’80s pop from ’90s grunge. With a few more years behind me, I’ve given more focus toward genres of music rather than simply categorizing music chronologically. In today’s generation of young people, with wide access to music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud and YouTube, how do we put a label, a sound or a rhythm to the music of the 2010s? Wide and instant access to music has deeply specialized the tastes of the generation who defined the culture of the 2010s, who I will say range between the ages of 16 and 30 presently, as they came of age during this decade and had the most influence on popular culture. We don’t have to choose between a handful of radio stations to define our personalities and tastes, we can explore and delve into any niche we can find. We’re no longer dependent on the radio disk- jockey, American BandStand or Billboard for discovery. Ultimately, our music taste feels less united than in past generations. Taking a sampling of the most popular songs from the last decade is interesting because the sound doesn’t feel quite as homogenous as it does when you look back at a decade like the 1960s or ’70s. While different genres were consumed by different people then as they are now, it seems the effects of technology on culture and music have led us to extreme specification, and — in some ways — polarization. The range of songs that defined this period are as diverse as they come, from “Levels” to “Despacito” to “Uptown Funk.” Reviewing the list of songs that Billboard published that “defined the decade” is fascinating, with so many genres and different sounds represented, a future and hypothetical “Best of the 2010s” radio station could never exist. An “oldies” station for my generation would have to be so widely encompassing that, in an attempt to appeal to everyone, it might fail to attract anyone. The diversity of this generation’s tastes could never be bottled into a radio station, and in fact, most of us don’t listen to the radio anymore at all. The increased use of the auxiliary cord and Bluetooth technology, coupled with the rise of smartphones and streaming services, has allowed people to control their own vibes in a way that radio or mix-CDs never could. Each song and each rhythm is in the power of the listener and that has fundamentally changed how we enjoy music collectively. With so much more to choose from, we aren’t categorized by one genre or sound from the past 10 years, there isn’t one popular or mainstream sound to base counterculture and “countermusic” off of anymore. There are many arguments as to how streaming services negatively impact artists and put less money in their pockets. On the opposite side of the spectrum, it has become significantly easier and cheaper for artists, especially new artists, to release music, market themselves and reach a niche with the current music streaming and consumption infrastructure. Spotify and SoundCloud allow you to upload your music for free and receive money based on listens, which represents a sort of “bottom-up” approach to the music industry where new and relatively unknown artists aren’t dependent on major labels or high-budget studio albums to see a payday. It seems we are less united by a common music taste than in generations past — but this shared experience of growing up with and embracing technology has separated our human experience from those that came before us, and has created a new shared identity of experiencing life and culture in a way that it never has been before. Our generation has pioneered the full integration of life and tech, and it will be extremely interesting to see how we are observed and studied by future generations. The variety of music that has defined the 2010s won’t be able to be encompassed by a “Best of the 19-XXs” radio station, but that doesn’t mean we won’t remember the meaningful tracks that defined our generation. Shad Jeffrey II can be reached at shadj@umich.edu. SUNGMIN CHO | COLUMN The American experience is not universal N ominated for six Oscars last week, “Parasite” became the first Korean movie to be nominated for Best International Film. This reminded the public of an interview the director Bong Joon-ho had last October, in which he said he was not expecting much from the Oscars. It may have just been his humility, but it’s likely his pessimism was based on the fact that a Korean film has never been nominated for the award. However, it was his next comment that surprised many American critics. “It’s a little strange, but it’s not a big deal. The Oscars are not an international film festival. They’re very local,” Joon- ho said. He shocked many Americans by categorizing the Oscars, long perceived as one of the most prestigious film gatherings in the world, as a local event. It is, in fact, a local event. The Oscars only recognize movies “for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County.” I’m not a film expert, but the reason I’m introducing this news byte is to point out that some Americans often forget that “American” does not mean “universal.” As an international student born and raised in South Korea, it’s often shocking to see how some American people perceive the world. In courses that address United States government and politics, instructors will sometimes refer to background knowledge by asking students to think about what they learned about the Civil War in high school or the American values they were taught growing up. They were not cognizant of the fact that there were international students in the class, people who were unfamiliar with these common American teachings. These instances reflect how some Americans, even those who are well- educated, are indifferent to or even unaware of the rest of the world. While American universities may claim to be global centers of knowledge, Joon-ho describes them as “insulated worlds” detached from other cultures. Although, it is natural for anyone to feel attached to their country, I find America’s indifference toward foreign cultures extraordinary because it starkly contrasts what I was taught about the world. The Korean mandatory education system teaches every student Korean, English and a choice of a second foreign language. Under the equivalent of K-12, each student is required to learn English from third grade and an additional foreign language from eighth grade, and the Korean SAT tests all three languages. This is not about excessive education, but rather about recognizing that not everyone speaks one language, and it is important to learn how to communicate with people from different countries. Meanwhile, minorities in the U.S. are still mocked for speaking languages other than English in public. An online critic responded to this with a burning satire, saying, “ ‘It’s rude not speaking English in public places.’ Aw, does it remind you that you can only speak one language?” Observing, or even experiencing, such incidents makes one realize how provincial perspectives are responsible for exclusive society. Compared to “international student,” imagine how awkward “domestic student” sounds. American students in an American institution are domestic students, but to an American listener, that way of categorizing might sound strange because “American” has always been the default. Every time I walk on the Diag and see the American flag, I feel ambivalent. On one hand, it reminds me of the rich democratic history I learn about every day, and I understand why so many people are patriotic to this country. On the other hand, I wish that someday studying in the U.S., I no longer need to come up with a random Hollywood movie as a substitute for my actual favorite movie for an icebreaker, which is not American. Sungmin Cho can be reached at csungmin@umich.edu. Each song and each rhythm is in the power of the listener. Americans are indifferent to the or even unaware of the rest of the world. CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. The sugar craving becomes more like an addiction, making it hard to replace that late night snack with something nutritious. MADELYN VERVAECKE | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT MIVERVAE@UMICH.EDU JOIN EDITBOARD Interested in sharing your opinion on current events and University affairs? Come to our Editorial Board meetings from 7:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. each Monday and Wednesday in the newsroom (420 Maynard St.).