These consumer watchdogs have been watching too much TV and it is clouding their ability to think clearly.
We had Tony and Snap crackle pop when I was a kid, and almost no one was fat.
OF ALL THOSE PEOPLE MENTIONED, and my cousins as well, there is ZERO obesity, ZERO weight problems. My mother is as trim as she was in high school, as is my uncle; my grandmother and great grandmother were trim all of their long lives, and at 50-plus, I am the same trim size six I've been most of my adult life, and all four of my brothers are healthy and about the same as they were in high school, though beefier, not teen-skinny.
Next generation -- my nieces and nephews, raised to drink soda pop and eat lots of starches and carbs, ALL have weight and skin problems. So I don't buy folks who tell me and my family, "Well, you're just lucky -- it's genetics."
Bullsh*t. If that was true, why are my nieces and nephews butterballs, after five generations of thin genes? It's because they EAT and DRINK stupidly. One of the biggest, most stupid mistakes ever made was to create the new "food" pyramic, which encourages WAY too much consumption of carbs and starches.
Look at your meal. There should be one or two or even three vegetable servings, one protein serving, and ONE STARCH. Not two, not three, but ONE. That means beans OR rice OR potatoes OR corn OR bread OR pasta, not beans and rice and potatoes and bread and pasta (though I make an exception with pasta and serve yummy gnarly sourdough with homemade garlic butter thick with fresh-grated parmesan). Milk, wine, water, or tea to drink. ZERO SODA POP, even diet -- throw that crap away and only drink it on special occasions.
We always had dessert -- pie, ice cream, cookies, cake. No one starved, no one felt deprived, AND NO ONE GOT FAT.