Free Republic

Every once in a while a politician says something that you think can’t possibly be correct… until you find that it is. This happened earlier in the month (better late than never) when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 92% was asked about sugar subsidies: “I’m ready to get rid of the loan program for sugar, as long as the countries that export sugar into the U.S. get rid of theirs as well, and here’s why: Otherwise, Brazil will wipe out our agriculture and it’s not just sugar.”“I’m prepared to say, absolutely, we should change the law so that as soon as...

The manufacturer of Oreo cookies recently announced plans to move production of Oreos from Chicago to Mexico, resulting in a loss of 600 U.S. jobs.This should be a wake-up call to defenders of the U.S. sugar program and other job-destroying trade barriers.The leading ingredient in Oreos is sugar, and U.S. trade barriers currently require Americans to pay twice the average world prices for sugar.Sugar-using industries now have a big incentive to relocate from the United States to countries where access to their primary ingredient is not restricted.If the government wants people making Oreo cookies and similar products to keep their...

Things are not so sweet for the sugar market. Prices have been tumbling and reached a six-year low on Monday on news that Brazil's cane growers are in for a bumper harvest. But while gold made the headlines, the dramatic fall in the sugar price was widely overlooked, despite closing down 4.4pc, compared with a 2.3pc slump in the price of bullion. Over the past year alone, sugar prices have fallen by a quarter. So why has everything turned sour? Bumper Harvest Monday's sharp price drop was driven by signs that Brazil, the world's biggest producer of sugar, is on...

MONTPELIER, VT -- All food and beverages sold through vending machines are now subject to Vermont's 9% meals and rooms tax, effective July 1. A 6% sales tax on sugary drinks is also in effect. The new levies are part of a tax package that lawmakers passed in May to raise a $30 million in new revenue. Lawmakers expect the sales tax on soft drinks to raise about $8 million a year, and applying the meals tax to vending machines to add about $1 million a year. Exempt from Vermont's sugary drink tax are products that contain milk, soy, rice...

Sweet Tooth Causes Some Major Side Effects On your Brains! June 24, 2015 If you love your fried, fatty foods smothered in chocolate and generously dusted with icing sugar? Then, you might just have to say goodbye to mental acuity.A new research conducted in Oregon State University has revealed that a high-sugar, high-fat diet can drastically modify your gut bacteria which in turn may lead to significant losses in ‘cognitive flexibility’ – a measurement of the brain’s ability to switch between thinking about one concept to another, and to adapt to changes in the environment.The study, which was conducted on...

Here's a sweet notion: Eat a little chocolate each day and you could be doing your heart a favor. A new study published in the journal Heart found that habitual chocolate eaters had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and strokes compared to people who didn't eat chocolate. So, what is it about chocolate that could possibly lead to such a benefit? Well, when you strip out the sugar and milk that's added to chocolate, you're left with the cocoa bean. And it's the compounds in the cocoa that researchers are most interested in. The study is part of a...

Do you want water or milk with that? Servers at Davis city restaurants will soon be asking that question to customers ordering kids’ meals with beverages, under a new ordinance designed to discourage sugary soda consumption. The ordinance, passed on a unanimous 5-0 vote Tuesday night, will require any Davis restaurant that offers a meal-with-drink kids’ menu to make water or milk, not soda, the primary option. Parents can still request soda at no extra charge, but must specifically ask for it. By Sept. 1, Davis restaurants must prove compliance with the city ordinance by submitting a copy of their...

The day the government tries to tell me what to eat, i.e. no red meat, fried foods or sugar, is the day I show them how to conduct a successful colonoscopy with a watermelon. We have 93 million citizens out of the workforce, 18 trillion in debt, unvetted illegal immigrants are streaming across the border, and Washington is worried about what’s on my plate? Unbeknownst to Obama & Co. - who can’t tell the truth to save their life and who refuse to take responsibility for a smorgasbord of failures and abuse - the Constitution is not a napkin and...

re you sick of seeing “welfare leeches” in the grocery checkout line with carts stuffed full of junk food snacks, soda and even porterhouse steaks and crab legs? So is Missouri House Rep. Rick Brattin, who has begun pushing for legislation prohibiting welfare abusers from buying foods that most hard-working Americans can’t always afford. After Brattin heard a food stamp recipient say, “This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything changing,” he knew something needed to be addressed. “The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original...

The First Lady of these United States is now urging Americans to stop drinking sweet tea. Yes – friends – you heard correctly. Mrs. Obama has declared war on the House Wine of the South. It’s all part of her anti-obesity campaign — called Let’s Move. The website Free Beacon was the first to report on her latest culinary atrocities – urging us to wash down our lettuce and bean sprouts with unsweetened tea. The First Lady also told Americans to stay away from all-you-can-eat buffets — which I’m sure is great news for all those folks employed by all-you-can-eat...

Sugar daddy dating sites - where young, attractive women can find themselves rich, older men who will pay for their companionship - have soared in popularity over the years. SugarDaddyForMe, the largest network in the world, boasts 45 million users, and, according to Femail's interviews with more than 20 of its female users, enables women to earn more than $60,000 a year, as well as endless perks – and a handful of surprisingly substantial relationships with their sugar daddies. Many of the women who use the website have a great deal in common. They were almost all 'skeptical' of the...

Stop chugging sugary soda and munching sweet treats. Cut back on red meats, butter and other sources of saturated fat. Lay off the salt shaker. Eat plenty of fruits and veggies. And don't worry about having an egg and an extra cup of coffee with your breakfast. These are the conclusions of the advisory panel that helps shape America's official dietary guidelines, and they appear to be about the same as they were back in 2010, the last time the guidelines were updated, dietitians say. "What's good about the report is that much of it is reinforcing what we saw...

Here is another mark against sugary drinks: A new study has found that drinking them is associated with lowered age of menarche. Age of first menses has decreased substantially since the early 20th century, and studies have shown that younger age of menarche is associated with increased risk of breast and endometrial cancer in later life. [Snip] After controlling for birth weight, maternal age at menarche, physical activity, and many dietary and behavioral factors, [researchers] found that girls who drank one-and-a-half 12-ounce cans a day of nondiet soda or sugared iced tea had their first period an average of 2.7...

(CBS SF) — A new study finds kids are gobbling up pizza at an alarming rate. The Journal of Pediatrics study found nearly a quarter of all American kids are eating pizza on any given day and that pizza makes up nearly a quarter of their calories. The study found kids and teens are getting more calories from pizza than anything else they eat — besides dessert. For many, it’s a wake-up call to reevaluate how parents feed their kids.

What could go wrong? Barack Obama released a nuclear terrorist back to Afghanistan this month. Mohammad Zahir was in possession of uranium for use in making an atomic bomb when he was captured. Daniel Greenfield at Frontpage Magazine reported: If Obama has a red line when it comes to releasing terrorists, we haven’t seen it yet. There appears to be no threat that a terrorist can pose and no crime he has committed too severe to prevent him from getting a plane trip out of Gitmo at taxpayer expense. The last releases saw terrorists rated as high risk freed by...

Hershey is looking at replacing the high-fructose corn syrup in some of its products with sugar. Will Papa, chief research and development officer at The Hershey Co., told The Associated Press the company uses a mix of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup in its products but that it is “moving more toward sugar.” “We take into account what consumers want. And consumers are telling us between the two, they prefer sugar,” Papa said. Moving toward sugar would make Hershey a high-profile example of the move away from high-fructose corn syrup in the food industry. …

HOUSTON, Texas – If you guzzle a lot of soft drinks, you know, carbonated colas, well, you could be paying a little more for all that sugar. And when you do, you can thank the gentle woman from Connecticut, Rosa Delauro. Rep. Delauro (D-CT) is responsible for the “Sugar Sweetened Beverages Tax Act” or just the “Sweet Act” if you prefer the lite version. She wants congress to put an extra tax on drinks that contain sugar or any other sweetener with calories. It would be just a penny per teaspoon, but that could end up adding about 15 cents...

Berkeley, California, one of the most liberal cities in the nation, have overwhelmingly approved the nation's first 'sugar tax,' which will raise the cost of sodas and energy drinks by one penny per ounce. A similar tax in neighboring San Francisco, which would have levied two cents per ounce, failed to pass - gaining 55percent of the vote, short of the two-thirds majority needed. The Berkeley tax would raise the cost of a can of Pepsi from $1 to $1.12, but bigger fountain drinks would get hit harder. A large Coke from McDonald's would go from $2.29 to $2.61. A...

If you really want to put a spook into people this Halloween, maybe dress up like the Free Market. That's a vision that scares a lot of folks these days – especially those who grow the sugar in our favorite holiday candies. Here in America, where the free-enterprise system should be celebrated, the government artificially props up prices by mandating how much sugar farmers can produce, restricting competition with high tariffs and buying up sugar with taxpayer money when there’s a surplus. That means in the U.S. we’re paying more for sugar and the many products that use sugar than...

NEGATIVE advertising has its uses. It was ads mocking the stately Washington home of Mary Landrieu, Louisiana's Democratic junior senator, that forced her into a run-off after November's election. (SNIP) A Mexican newspaper reported that Mr Bush had agreed to allow more sugar from that country into the United States. Ms Landrieu said this policy (which the White House denied approving) would hurt Louisiana's sugar-cane farmers, and promised to fight it. Her sudden embrace of protectionism was a bit hypocritical, since she and other Louisiana Democrats have scorned Mr Bush's decision to impose tariffs on the foreign steel that moves...