Blame the Sugar

In past blogs I have warned that if we don't begin to change our behavior, especially by acting responsibly, bad consequences will continue.  This may force the government to step in, threatening our freedom.  This idea of a threat to freedom may seem like an abstract concept, perhaps a little difficult to pin down.  Now we have another concrete example.

Published Wednesday in Nature, a study by three scientists from UC San Francisco finds that sugar is as bad for us as alcohol and tobacco and should be likewise regulated.  This article from the LA Times gives the details.  The study's authors make recommendations to the Federal Government including: taxation, distribution controls, age limits, and a limit or ban on television commercials for processed foods containing any form of added sugar.  This is what I mean by loss of freedom.   Besides the alcohol and tobacco restrictions, there have been local bans on transfats.  Today it's sugar.  What next?


This article is interesting because I find the wording, "sugar...is responsible" near the beginning and "sugar itself is to blame" further on.  How long are we going to let inanimate objects, like sugar, take the rap for us?  If we don't step up and take responsibility for our behavioral failures and begin to make some changes, well-intentioned people will call for government action and our freedoms will slowly erode. Meanwhile, we will be standing around wondering how it happened!