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 ...
Mexican EVERYTHING is plentiful in Tejas.
Your point that I was responding to had nothing to do with taxes. You were talking about an individual's right over his own body, were you not? Here's what you wrote in post #55 (emphasis mine):
______________________________________
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?
______________________________________
So tell us, is it government's business what adults chose to do to their bodies?
No but we heard so much about how insurance was having to take care of smokers, so I guess now smokers can say insurance premiums are going to take care of the obese who have a lot of health problems.
I don’t drink sodas, so I’m stupid. What the heck is HFCS?
Never mind. I just figured it out. High Fructose Corn Syrup. It’s in everything.
Sure there is.
It is a behavioral deficiency that costs society in health care expenses (read tax dollars)
Where have you been?
Directly to the taxpayers, who will hopefully then revolt.
Faced with the choice of working at forced labor for various governments at the level I am now, or even more....I will just cease doing it altogether.
Atlas Shrugged.
You forgot salt.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/07/24/diet.sodas/index.html
While there is no absolute proof, this is one of many references to studies suggesting a link.
Sure it will.
Deep-vein thrombosis from not being able to move.
Actually, taxes get raised, or taxes get lowered or tax credits are given in order to modify behavior, which is even more devious and heinous (except for the tax cuts and credits that encourage wealth creation).
You don’t get it. Socialists are about control and social engineering and at some point will limit your food intake to 500 calories a day and insure it is strictly vegetarian. I suspect an exception will be made for cannibals whom will be let in under lax immigration laws all in the name of diversity. Just remember, when they invite you for lunch, refuse.
I'm thinking that Coke and PepsiCo just want to be left alone, like I do.
It's a shame we have to pay in order to be left alone in this country.
I would rather have the Mafia in charge than the current administration and Congress.
At least the Mafia is relatively honorable.
Are they proposing to tax ALL soda, or just the non-diet varieties? It’s hard to justify a tax on zero calorie products on obesity grounds. I didn’t find that discussed in the article.
This discussion is not about what is good or bad for you. It is a discussion about whether or not your federal government should decide that and enforce its decision at the point of a gun.
Sheesh!
Those of us who were smokers tried to warn the country about the food nazis coming for their junk food/beverages. I remember several people who denied that could ever happen. Now look, hundreds of millions of tax dollars were distributed (from smokers) and the states' social programs ballooned, and became "necessities." Same thing will happen with desserts and sweet drinks, for the children's sake of course, not to mention corn chips, potato chips, cheese curls, all the rest of the high salt snack foods.
Um, your “study” does not mention the condition of the participants at the beginning of the “study.” Perhaps because the soft drink group was at higer risk to begin with? You don’t know, and that’s what I assume.
Take a thousand identical twins. Deny one twin softdrinks for life, and give the other three cans a day. Wait thirty years, and then get back to me.
I know that wikipedia is not a definitive sourse, but it does capture the public’s general understanding of matters so here goes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose
“The mechanism of fructose absorption in the small intestine is not completely understood.”
By those standards, there is no reason you should not be enjoying alcohol, coffee, or tea.
I too was complaining about any tax on soda, but
you don’t seem to read too closely, only focusing
on those ‘scientific’ facts I got wrong, or ways in which
I misread (GOD FORBID!) the intention of your precious thread, which now looks like a little Venus Flytrap experiment.
Funny, what starts out as just a pleasant conversation people like
you tend to turn into an excruciating object lesson in not
crossing the teacher. Pretty austere, dude, you are.
Try to grow a sense of humor when you have time.
Hope you get help.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.