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Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke? (are Coke & Pepsi the new tobacco?)
The New York Times ^ | Feb 16, 2010 | Mark Bittman

Posted on 03/17/2010 12:32:18 PM PDT by presidio9

Is soda the new tobacco?

In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change. The industry says there are critical differences: in moderate quantities soda isn’t harmful, nor is it addictive.

The problem is that at roughly 50 gallons per person per year, our consumption of soda, not to mention other sugar-sweetened beverages, is far from moderate, and appears to be an important factor in the rise in childhood obesity. This increase is at least partly responsible for a rise in what can no longer be called “adult onset” diabetes — because more and more children are now developing it.

Attention is being paid: Last week, the Obama administration announced a plan to ban candy and sweetened beverages from schools. A campaign against childhood obesity will be led by the first lady, Michelle Obama. And a growing number of public health advocates are pushing for even more aggressive actions, urging that soda be treated like tobacco: with taxes, warning labels and a massive public health marketing campaign, all to discourage consumption.

A tax on soda was one option considered to help pay for health care reform (the Joint Committee on Taxation calculated that a 3-cent tax on each 12-ounce sugared soda would raise $51.6 billion over a decade), and President Obama told Men’s Health magazine last fall that such a tax is “an idea that we should be exploring. There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda.”

But with all the junk food and U.F.O.’s (unidentifiable food-like objects) out there, why soda? Why a tax? And, most important, would it work?

To the beverage industry,

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: coke; foodpolice; liberalfascism; nanny; nannystate; pepsi; pufflist
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To: norraad

Yes, it dawned on me just about the time I posted my ignorance. Agreed, it’s bad stuff. I’ve taken to reading labels and not buying things that have HFCS in them. I hardly ever drink a soda, and when I do, it’s Diet Rite and very little of that, because Splenda is no better than Aspartame. I drink Arizona Green Tea mixed with water, and milk. Once in a blue moon a glass of regular tea. I do love my coffee though. Thanks for the info.


161 posted on 03/18/2010 3:47:49 PM PDT by WVNan (I hate the liberal news corpse..)
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To: the_devils_advocate_666; Madame Dufarge

My generation smoked,drank alcohol,and guzzled coffee when pregnant. (I never liked soda or I would have drunk that also.)

We all had healthy kids.

The world has gone stark-raving mad.


162 posted on 03/18/2010 5:07:51 PM PDT by Mears
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To: truthfreedom
The article seems to be ignoring hfcs.

Well, I don't give a crap about hfcs because I only drink coffee, milk and water.

I just don't want the federal government telling me what I can or cannot ingest.

163 posted on 03/18/2010 6:57:49 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: Mears
I'd reply to you but, like all the others of our generation, I died at the age of 32 from not living a government-approved lifestyle.

If only we'd welcomed with open arms their intrusion into the minutiae of our life we could have lived forever. Or at least as long as the Great Health Collective decided we could, burdening the other members of the hive being the new Mortal Sin.

Freedom was just, well, messy and now we're dead.

164 posted on 03/19/2010 4:51:44 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: Mears
"This house has sho' gon' crazy"(the cook in that 3 stooges as plumbers short).

Yes, what you said reminds me of an old saying about a guy who read this was bad for you and read that was bad for you, so what did he do?

He stopped reading.

165 posted on 03/19/2010 8:23:27 AM PDT by norraad ("What light!">Blues Brothers)
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To: libertarian27
Take the side streets so you don't pay the toll.

No tolls between Westchester County and Fairfield County.

166 posted on 03/19/2010 12:04:16 PM PDT by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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To: supremedoctrine

You don’t get: When someone says something stupid to me, I call them on it. It could be on one of my own threads. It could be on somebody else’s thread. It could be on the subway. I have a zero tolerance policy for stupidity. When a person’s feelings get hurt, they have three choices: They can walk away, they can admit they’re wrong, or they can persue the line of stupidity until they’ve made a complete ass out of themselves: A vain attempt to somehow make whatever it was they said correct. You chose the third option. I’m constantly wrong. I usually chose to own up to it. Sometimes I walk away. When I let my pride force me to fight it out, I generally regret it.


167 posted on 03/19/2010 12:15:32 PM PDT by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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To: Rennes Templar
By those standards, there is no reason you should not be enjoying alcohol, coffee, or tea.

That makes zero sense. Thanks for wasting my time with it.

168 posted on 03/19/2010 12:16:40 PM PDT by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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To: Glenn
I cannot stand sugared soda. It's thick and sticky and sickening. It's all what you get used to, I guess.

There's no doubt about that. It explains why some people prefer Coke to Pepsi and vice versa.

169 posted on 03/19/2010 12:18:39 PM PDT by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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To: presidio9
QUOTE: What if Coke & Pepsi were on that list? Is it your business what adults chose to do to their bodies? Would Jefferson and Hamilton have agreed with you? Should we outlaw motorcycles and crab fishing?

That's where I draw the line. Even if it means riding with my pitchfork and tar and feather launcher, this is it.

170 posted on 03/19/2010 12:59:08 PM PDT by ddk632 (Four by Four Animal Style Protein Style)
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To: Madame Dufarge

R.I.P. Madame D.


171 posted on 03/19/2010 1:54:52 PM PDT by Mears
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To: presidio9

You can have my Coke, when you pry it out of my cold dead hands!

Flash from the past:
Cancer Alert: Bread and French Fries
New Study: Heated Carbohydrate Foods Can Carry Cancer Chemical

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/04/25/health/main507222.shtml


172 posted on 03/19/2010 2:09:23 PM PDT by edge10 (Obama lied, babies died!)
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To: presidio9

I will heretofore avoid all threads started by you.
My mistake to hit post to #1 and not read the other
replies first to perhaps find someone or something more
appropriate to respond to.
You treat your posts like your personal property : you’re the guy with the shotgun, and I’m the guy trying
to break in. Bully for you.
Maybe you could save your animosity for some REAL enemies
we all have in common?


173 posted on 03/19/2010 4:12:53 PM PDT by supremedoctrine ("Every election is like an advance auction sale of stolen goods"--H.L.Mencken)
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To: Judith Anne

Yep. We preached about this very scenario for years. Looks like it’ll be playing out soon enough. Wonder how they’ll like it then?


174 posted on 03/20/2010 12:27:19 PM PDT by 383rr (Those who choose security over liberty deserve neither; GUN CONTROL= SLAVERY)
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To: presidio9

Demonize-Profitize. Tax & Spend. This will continue until.......???


175 posted on 03/20/2010 12:36:18 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: 383rr; norraad
Did you see this post 149 from norraad? Well, perhaps there's some good news, the word is getting out big time on this corpo-villain, there may be legal action akin to the tobacco circus.

Corpo-villain? Legal action akin to the tobacco circus? As I recall, that was billions of dollars given to the states, supposed to be for treating smokers' diseases and to educate children. What a stupid joke!

None of this is good news. It all plays into national health care. It's communist.

176 posted on 03/20/2010 1:26:16 PM PDT by Judith Anne (2012 Sarah Palin/Duncan Hunter 2012)
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