"If you don’t like coffee or tea, Mountain Dew has a new breakfast drink that might perk you up....
What's wrong with coffee?
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"FDA urged to regulate sugar in drinks; Agency may not act onpetition filed by advocates" by Deborah Kotz | Globe Staff, February 14, 2013
WASHINGTON — The US Food and Drug Administration should regulate the amount of added sugars in soda and other sweetened beverages to reverse the obesity epidemic, a Washington-based nutrition activist group urged in a petition signed by Harvard School of Public Health researchers, the Boston Public Health Commission, and others.
Yeah, the FDA really has a great track record when it comes to regulations and such. They can't even protect or guarantee the safety of the food supply now and they want to put more on their plate?
Related: Obesity drops among preschoolers
Childhood obesity rates drop in some cities
Seems like a big story, but don't let that get in the way of the agenda.
“The FDA considers sugar to be a safe food at the recommended level of consumption, but Americans are consuming two to three times that much,” Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which filed the petition, said at a press briefing on Wednesday. He added that the average American consumes 78 pounds of added sugars each year, mostly from high fructose corn syrup prevalent in sugary sodas, sports drinks, and fruit punch.
It's the rot-gut of sweeteners, and they have the American public addicted.
The petition was signed by 10 local public health departments, medical organizations, and 42 nutrition researchers, including many from Harvard. It did not specify what the recommended limit for added sugars should be in soft drinks.
Over the past half-century, Americans have dramatically increased their intake of sugary drinks, and research suggests this has contributed to the obesity epidemic and a rise in related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and a variety of cancers.
Related: Study puts new light on weight hazards
What do you mean the measurement is bogus?
Are you full up on the agenda-pushing so the elite can have more and you less, readers?
“The evidence is very robust that when we eat more sugar we gain weight and when we eat less, we lose weight,” said Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who also spoke at the briefing....
Jeffrey Senger, former acting chief counsel of the FDA who is now a partner at the law firm Sidley Austin, said it is unlikely the agency would act to restrict sugar. “Any food, if it’s abused, can be unhealthy,” he said. “Sugar isn’t the same thing as arsenic.”
I can't imagine the rea$on$ why!
Of course, the guy is right.
The FDA was urged by the Institute of Medicine in 2010 to regulate the amount of sodium in foods to help Americans control hypertension and heart failure. The agency has not acted on that request, but it did institute new labeling requirements for heart-damaging trans fatty acids in 2006, in part because of a petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest urging such action, according to FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess.
It's because so much of the processed food you buy is loaded with both sodium and sugar.
She confirmed that the latest petition was received and would be reviewed by FDA officials, but added that the FDA was not aware of any evidence highlighting added safety risks from high fructose corn syrup compared with other sugars such as honey, table sugar, or molasses.
That suggests that the agency might have a hard time requiring Coke or Pepsi to limit their products to 10 grams of added sugar per serving — what many public health specialists recommend — without also requiring the same limits on cereal, baked goods, and other processed foods.
$ee who calls the $hots?
“To limit the amount of added sugars in beverages, the FDA would need to establish that there is enough scientific evidence to justify limiting these ingredients and to go through a rulemaking process that allows for public comment,” said Miriam Guggenheim, a partner in the food and beverage practice at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C.
Taking a firm position against government regulations to limit added sugars, the American Beverage Association, which represents soft drink manufacturers, pointed out in a statement on its website that companies have already made efforts to reduce sugar in sweetened beverages....
Pepsi has introduced Pepsi Next, which contains 60 percent less sugar than traditional Pepsi, replacing some of the high fructose corn syrup with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose. But Coke’s low-sugar C2 soft drink was deemed to be a failure after it was launched in 2004, and is rarely on the shelves now.
Why do you think people are drinking the stuff?
About half of Americans consume sugary beverages on any given day, according to the latest data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and consumption of sugary beverages has increased among children and adults over the past 30 years.
I'm not one of them, but have you ever taken a walk down a supermarket aisle in America?
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Related: Questions mount on energy drinks
5 deaths may be tied to consuming Monster Energy drink
Then just change the label to avoid regulation!
Also see: Drinks’ jolts of caffeine called a risk for military
Even driving our already hopped up vets crazy.
Maybe you should just have a drink of water instead:
"N.J. says officials rigged water samples" by David Porter | Associated Press, February 14, 2013
NEWARK — Two top officials at a northern New Jersey municipal water authority falsified records and shut down contaminated wells in advance of safety tests to hide elevated levels of a contaminant, the state attorney general’s office charged in an indictment released Wednesday.
The indictment was handed up Tuesday against 58-year-old Harry Mansmann of Lawrenceville, the executive director of the East Orange Water Commission, and assistant executive director and engineer William Mowell, 51, of Wyckoff.
They are charged with conspiracy, records tampering, unlawfully releasing toxic pollutants, and multiple counts of official misconduct and violating state environmental laws.
The water authority serves about 90,000 customers.
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And yet there are some people out there who want you to take water from the tap because of global warming(?).
Related: Rubio puts Maine’s Poland Spring in the spotlight
That's all the politicos are talking about, or so I've heard. As you can see, I'm spitting it out.
