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It's time fruit juice loses its wholesome image, some experts say Compared with soda, juice carries more calories and as much sugar. There's also evidence that high consumption increases the risk of obesity, especially among kids. By Karen Kaplan November 8, 2009 To many people, it's a health food. To others, it's simply soda in disguise. That virtuous glass of juice is feeling the squeeze as doctors, scientists and public health authorities step up their efforts to reduce the nation's girth. It's an awkward issue for the schools that peddle fruit juice in their cafeterias and vending machines. It's uncomfortable...

Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own. Soft drinks are hard on your health Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and...

They were always called "pop bottles" out in the Sandhills of Nebraska when I was growing up, but the liquid inside was always called "soda." I suppose it was one of those regional things, but whatever. It was a couple of "pop bottles" that nearly caused my demise the summer I was three years old. An older sister and I had come across them, and all agog and excited, we decided to turn them in to the neighborhood midget grocery store for candy. She, holding the bottles, ran across the street. I ran across the street following her, but alas...

Can tax on soft drinks fight obesity? View article...

(09-17) 20:36 PDT -- Calling soda the new tobacco, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will introduce legislation this fall that would charge a fee to retailers that sell sugary beverages. Newsom would need voter approval to tax individual cans of soda and sugary juice, but only needs approval from the Board of Supervisors to levy a fee on retailers.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California lawmaker who spearheaded a high-profile anti-obesity effort across the country's most populous state is now training his sights on sugar-sweetened drinks. Sen. Alex Padilla, who led a campaign requiring big restaurant chains to disclose calories in meals, said on Thursday he planned to hold hearings in November on the link between soda consumption and obesity. The announcement from Padilla -- who chairs the California Senate's Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes -- coincides with the release of a study that shows nearly two-thirds of children aged 12 to 17 gulp down at least one...

I don’t like soda pop. It’s bad for you, it’s a waste of money, it rots your teeth. I don’t like soda pop. So I don’t drink it. That’s how freedom works. If you like soda pop, you drink it. If you don’t like soda pop, you don’t drink it. It’s a great system. But Obama wants to screw with it. In an era in which the federal government seems intent on taking both your freedom and your money, the new target is soda pop. Get ready to get hosed. If you resist, you are a racist. This week, in...

In an interview with Men's Health published Monday, President Obama suggested that a tax on such items as soda and sugary drinks should be put on the table, saying "I actually think it's an idea that we should be exploring." **** Putting aside the fact a soda tax would violate Obama's central campaign promise not to raise "any form" of taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year, his statements indicate his support for use of the tax code as a tool to reward and punish certain behaviors as he sees fit. This incident also reminds us of Obama's...

Gov. Paterson's proposal to tax soda in New York fizzled, but President Obama believes it may be time to pop a similar sin tax on the nation. The President, in an interview with Men's Health magazine released yesterday, said he thought taxing soda and other sugary drinks is worth putting on the table as Congress debates health care reform. "It's an idea that we should be exploring," the president said. "There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda. And every study that's been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda...

Two cans of fizzy drink a day could cause long term liver damage, resulting in the need for a transplant, according to new research. Researchers are now urging parents to cut back on their children’s consumption of fizzy drinks as well as reducing fresh fruit juices substituting them for water. Liver damage is normally associated with alcohol abuse but the new study has found that non-alcoholic drinks with a high sugar content can cause a condition called fatty liver disease. Related Articles Artificial sweeteners 'do nothing to help weight loss' Scientists from Israel found that people who drank a litre...

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration says a test shows that either a frog or a toad was in a Florida man's soda can, but it's not clear how it got there

...Freiden said he was not endorsing the tax as a member of the administration but was "just presenting the science," according to Ambinder..... .... The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a three-cent tax would generate $24 billion over the next four years, and proponents of the tax argued before the committee that it would lower consumption of sugary drinks and improve Americans' overall health. ...

Researchers at Georgia State University have found that diets high in fructose — a type of sugar found in most processed foods and beverages — impaired the spatial memory of adult rats. Amy Ross, a graduate student in the lab of Marise Parent, associate professor at Georgia State's Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, fed a group of Sprague-Dawley rats a diet where fructose represented 60 percent of calories ingested during the day. She placed the rats in a pool of water to test their ability to learn to find a submerged platform, which allowed them to get out of...

Sugar, rum and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.” — Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations,” 1776 That quotation, from the great philosopher of capitalism, appeared at the start of an article that ran a few weeks ago in The New England Journal of Medicine. The article argued for taxing Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull and any other sugar-sweetened beverage, largely to combat obesity. The authors were Kelly Brownell, a longtime obesity researcher at Yale, and Thomas Frieden, the New...

Pay no attention to the fact that people might look at it as a middle class tax increase. And ignore the fact that New York Governor David Paterson's approval numbers headed into the toilet (he's at 19% now) when he proposed (and then dropped) the same tax in New York. In fact, disregard the fact that the first anti-tax Tea Party this year took place well before Rick Santelli's much-watched rant. It happened in Binghamton, New York earlier this winter as a direct result of the proposed fat tax on soda. The participants dumped soda into the river in protest.

Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health-care system. The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama...

A Croatian man claims he has drunk nothing but Coca-Cola for the past 40 years – because he promised his mother he would not touch alcohol.Pero Ajtman, 71, said he promised his mother he would stop drinking alcoholic beverages four decades ago. "My mum didn't like me drinking when I was a young man as she was very religious," he explained to the Croatian tabloid 24 Sata. "She made me promise never to drink again and Coca-Cola was the only thing that tasted as good as wine so I started drinking that. "Now I have a glass in the morning,...

Seems that some New Yorkers aren't just going to lay back and take Governor Paterson's ridiculous proposed fat tax on non-diet soda, which, along with all the other new taxes, is expected to cost the average New York family nearly $4,000.00. So in the spirit of the Sons of Liberty in Boston in 1773, these guys threw a New York Tea Party. Video at the link . . .

Eliot Spitzer said he was sorry for Hooker-gate. Not as sorry as the rest of his fellow New Yorkers. His replacement as governor, David Paterson, is an out-of-control, money-sucking fool, who seems hell bent on destroying the economy in his state, one family at a time. More . . .

There’s no “change” when it comes to politics as usual in The Empire State, in fact the Emperor’s latest edict is not being well-received. Gov. Paterson’s proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too. Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an “iPod tax” that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other “digitally delivered entertainment services.” “We’re going to have to take some extreme measures,” Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget....

New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state's economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson's first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components. The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the...

The U.S. attorney's office is making a federal case out of a spilt soda. The Bush administration's top attorney in Idaho is bringing charges against a North Idaho woman for refusing to pay for a Diet Coke and then pouring it out on a counter at a cafeteria at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise.

Federal prosecutors have charged a North Idahoan with 2 offenses after a dispute over the price of a pop at the Boise VA hospital. -- SNIP -- Natalie Walters, now facing two counts that each carry a maximum sentence of six months in federal prison, thinks the case is a waste of taxpayer money and plans to fight the charges. -- SNIP -- The 39-year-old North Idaho resident periodically drives her father, a disabled Vietnam veteran, to Boise's VA Medical Center for doctor visits. She brings her own mug and fills it with soda in the hospital's cafeteria. The cafeteria...

In a country, where 80% of schools lack access to drinking water, Pepsi challenges students to stave off obesity while selling them soft drinks. Every day small armies of street vendors gather outside the gates of Mexico's schools to tempt the nation's children. "I don't like drinks without flavour," Raul explained one recent afternoon as he succumbed to the siren's call of a bright red fizzy drink. "I don't know anybody who does." Mexicans down more soft drinks than any other nationality in the world, aside from Americans, and even their traditional diet is filled with fried food and sugar....

Pepsi, Coke rivalry becomes physical Fri Oct 12, 9:46 PM ET The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said. The two deliverymen were "apparently bickering back and forth" while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said. No charges have been filed, but police characterized the...

TOKYO - Japanese are staying cool as a cucumber this summer with "Pepsi Ice Cucumber" — a new soda based on the crisp green gourd. The soft drink, which hit stores here on Tuesday, doesn't actually have any cucumber in it — but has been artificially flavored to resemble "the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber," said Aya Takemoto, spokeswoman of Japan's Pepsi distributor, Suntory Ltd. "We wanted a flavor that makes people think of keeping cool in the summer heat," Takemoto said. "We thought the cucumber was just perfect." The mint-colored soda is on sale just for the summer...

You may want to put that soda can down.A common preservative found in drinks such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Fanta and Diet Pepsi may cause serious cell damage, according to a report in Britain's The Independent.  Sodium benzoate has the ability to switch off vital parts of a person's DNA, according to research from a British university.  The problem is usually associated with aging and alcohol abuse, but new findings show that drinking soda with the preservative can eventually lead to of the liver and degenerative diseases such as .  Click here to read the full story in The...

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - There's no use crying over spilled milk, but spilled soda has been a nightmare for one man. Eric Burns Overstreet was put in jail in September after entering the Mystik Stop & Shop, paying for a fountain drink and spilling three cups of it onto the floor. The first time he spilled the soda, Overstreet went to fetch a mop and began cleaning up the mess. In the process, he spilled a second and a third soft drink. "He clearly appeared to be under the influence of something other than good sense," Chief Assistant District Attorney...

In a letter submitted to me by a student requesting more info on the effects of soda on teeth: "To Whom it May Concern: Hello. My name is LN and I am an 8th grade student in NJ. This year for my science project, I am studying how soda affects teeth. For my research, I was hoping that I would be able to ask a dentist some questions about soda and teeth. I was wondering if you could take a few minutes and answer my questions. I would really appreciate it. My questions are: 1. What is your area of...

Silicon Valley Young Republican Federated Location: Sanborn Skyline County Park 16001 Sanborn Rd, saratoga, CA View Map When: Saturday, August 12, 5:00pm Phone: Svyrfc-408 243 4761 Greetings: The Silicon Valley Young Republicans Federated would like to invite everyone to attend our event to help raise money for the troops on august 12th. We are co-sponsering this event with the California Republican Assembly unit in santa clara county. We would feel honored if you can attend or if you can not attend you can donate. SVYRF Club Socials SVYRFC Annual BBQ Location: Sanborn Skyline County Park, Saratoga When: August 12, 2006...

Researchers work to shrink technology that harnesses sun's energy to both heat and coolEvery day, the sun bathes the planet in energy--free of charge--yet few systems can take advantage of that source for both heating and cooling. Now, researchers are making progress on a thin-film technology that adheres both solar cells and heat pumps onto surfaces, ultimately turning walls, windows, and maybe even soda bottles into climate control systems. On July 12, 2006, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researcher Steven Van Dessel and his colleagues will announce their most recent progress--including a computer model to help them simulate the climate within...

Brussels, Belgium (AHN) - Running out of ideas to name their 15th child, a Belgian couple submitted an ad in a local newspaper to get help from the public with ideas. The couple, Brigitte Dillen and Ivo Driessens, from Merksem, have given all their children names ending with 'y' but cannot think of yet another one for their latest addition. The new baby will be a brother or sister for Wendy (20), Cindy (18), Jimmy (17), Brendy (16), Sonny (15), Sandy (14), Purdy (13), Chardy (9), Yorry (8), Yony (6), Britney (5), Yenty (3), Ruby (2) and Xanty (1). According...

The beverage industry is scheduled to announce today that it is voluntarily removing high-calorie soft drinks from all schools. In an agreement to be announced by former president Bill Clinton, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and the head of the American Heart Association, the industry also will limit the amount of other sugary beverages, such as fruit drinks, in school vending machines. But diet soft drinks will continue to be sold in high schools that allow such products. The agreement sets different rules for elementary schools, middle schools and high schools and comes at a time when the beverage industry...

NEW YORK - The nation's largest beverage distributors have agreed to halt nearly all soda sales to public schools, according to a deal announced Wednesday by the William J. Clinton Foundation. Under the agreement, the companies have agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools, said Jay Carson, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton. Diet sodas would be sold only to high schools. Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson said, adding that the companies serve "the vast majority of...

HARTFORD, Conn.,   Connecticut's state legislature voted on Thursday to ban sales of sodas and other sugary beverages in state elementary, middle and high schools as part of an effort to stem teen obesity.Gov. Jodi Rell has pledged to sign the bill, which would make Connecticut the fourth U.S. state with a strong law in schools to trim the growing American teenage waistline. The ban includes all regular and diet sodas, along with "electrolyte replacement beverages" such as Gatorade. The only drinks allowed to go on sale in schools would be bottled water, milk or 100-percent fruit and vegetable drinks. "The...

Trial lawyers who made a fortune from lawsuits against tobacco companies are moving on to a new potential payday: Suing soft drink companies over the sale of sugary beverages in schools. Stephen Gardner, staff lawyer for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and half a dozen other lawyers – several of them veterans of successful tobacco litigation – plan to file a lawsuit in the next few months seeking to ban sales of sugary beverages in schools.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept 15 (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation on Thursday to ban carbonated soda in state high schools as part of an effort to stem teen obesity. "California is facing an obesity epidemic," said Schwarzenegger, a former Mr. Olympia and longtime health advocate. "Today we are taking some first steps in creating a healthy future for California." He signed the legislation at the start of a daylong summit on health and obesity in the California capital Sacramento. He said that one out of three children in California, the nation's most populous state, is obese. "Obesity-related health...

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- On a hot day, there's nothing like a cool, refreshing soda. And when soda bottles are exploding on an interstate off-ramp, there's nothing like that, either. "I've only been driving about three months on my own so... got to pay attention to all the rules," said driver, Ron Fife. Fife had just picked up a trailer full of sodas from the Southeast Atlantic Beverage Company and was headed to Atlanta. "You gotta pay attention, read those signs," said Fife.

Norwegian homosexuals are set to launch their own soda brand, Homo light, at an upcoming gastronomic festival, in the hope that it will help promote tolerance, one of the authors of the project said today. "The goal is not for us to make money but to make us more visible and accepted," Oeystein Mauritzen said. Pear-flavoured and pink, Homo Light will go on sale as a one-time offer at a stand at a gastronomic festival in the southwestern town of Stavanger between July 27 and 30. Along with the soda, which will be sold in half-litre bottles for 20 kroner...

  It Takes a Village...Of Idiots!June 9, 2005 Even Hillary Clinton realized that, “No government can love a child, and no policy can substitute for a family's care.”  Yet, that is exactly what many elected officials are trying to do in state governments across country.  With real problems drifting unaddressed, many elected state officials are playing political Mommies.  Just where is it constitutionally mandated that politicians are empowered to usurp individual liberties and make lifestyle decisions...including, but not limited to what non-alcoholic beverages your children will, and will not, be allowed to drink? Connecticut, sometimes known as The Land of Steady Habits,...

"Just a few words about our favorite warrior…If you ask her, SGT Ann Olson will tell you she’s from just about anywhere – South Carolina, Virginia, and occasionally, Wisconsin. She joined the United States Army in 2000 at age 21, figuring that life just isn’t complete without an occasional controlled blast or the opportunity to accessorize in green whenever one wants. Duty called on Christmas Eve, 2004…four days later, Ann boarded a plane bound for Kuwait, and found herself in the desert south of the Iraqi border in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today, SGT Olson is serving with the...

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia school officials approved a policy banning the sale of carbonated soft drinks in all city schools. Starting in July, only milk, water, fruit juice and the occasional sports drink will be available from most of the district's 740 vending machines and in its cafeterias, according to rules passed Wednesday by the School Reform Commission. The 214,000-student district took the action following a January recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics that soft drinks be eliminated from schools as a way of fighting an obesity epidemic among young people.

Sugar and Grains Increase Depression   Depression may be the culprit behind both mental and physical health conditions. According to studies, more than normal rates of depression can be found in patients with clinically manifest type 2 diabetes. Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes and can be characterized by insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency--either of which can be present at its onset.And, while the relationship between insulin resistance and depression is a vague and contradictory area, a more recent study may have made some headway.Treading New GroundResearchers discovered a positive connection between higher levels of...

It's Snapple or nothing for thousands of thirsty students who attend Brooklyn high schools where a new policy bans kids from carrying outside beverages into school. "It's wrong," said Shabana Mohumad, a freshman at Clara Barton High School who saw her sealed water bottle confiscated last week. "It was insulting." Barton students said they are being bullied into drinking Snapple - the only soft drink available in city schools - but education bosses insist that was not their intention. "It didn't even cross my mind," said Gloria Buckery, superintendent for Region 6 in Brooklyn. The policy was meant to reduce...

In many ways the soft drink industry is better prepared than most others to capitalize on America's perpetual diet. "There's no such thing as a no-calorie hamburger. There's no such thing as a no-calorie doughnut," said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest. "But the soft drink industry already has these huge powerful brands" of diet drinks. Last year, regular soda accounted for nearly 73 percent of sales, but that was down nearly 2 percent from the year before, Sicher said. Meanwhile, diet was up more than 6 percent from 2002. Sicher thinks that trend will continue and even accelerate enough...

Yesterday was declared "National No Soda Day" by an activist organization called the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) -- presently unaffiliated with the American Medical Association. The group argued that people should cut soda "out of their diets," and urged medical students around the nation to drop their cans and preach to the rest of us. The only problem for AMSA: its anti-soda statements, and the research that supposedly backs them up, are nothing more than fizz. In a "frequently asked questions" section of AMSA's website, the group notes that soda is just the first step in its anti-food-choice crusade....

Non-Diet Drinks Also Increase Risk of Diabetes, Study Shows Women who drink non-diet soda or fruit punch every day gain weight quickly and face a sharply elevated risk of diabetes, according to a major study released yesterday. The study of more than 50,000 U.S. nurses found that those who drank just one serving of soda or fruit punch a day tended to gain much more weight than those who drank less than one a month, and had more than an 80 percent increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The risk pertained to...

Washington, DC -- Attention parents and teachers! The food police have added whole and two-percent milk to the list of "poor nutritional quality" beverages in their crosshairs, recommending that they be removed from American's schools. This and other ridiculous assertions are contained in a report being circulated by the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The draft report, rumored to be released this month, bears the name of CSPI's activist coalition, the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA). NANA is part of an anti-soda crusade which advocates taxing sodas and restricting their...

Radio report said officals have isolated and are combing a Phoenix to Reagan Nat'l flight on the ground at Sky Harbor. Apparently, someone found (I'm not kidding) a soda can with a wire sticking out of it.