Balance of Food

Kudos to Nicholas Kristof, who went on the attack against high-fructose corn syrup in his April 11 column in The New York Times. Kristof even compared HFCS to plutonium and anthrax, even if it was an analogy. Since The New York Times is insistent on this whole TimesSelect thing, I can't reprint the whole thing. But here are some highlights: * Americans over the age of 2 get an average of 132 calories a day from high-fructose corn syrup. * Sugary drinks now account for one-sixth of the calories we ingest. * "It's more speculative, but high-fructose corn syrup may be a particular problem. Some studies indicate that the body metabolizes fructose differently from other sugars, so that the body is slower to get the message that it should stop eating. There's also a circumstantial case against high-fructose corn syrup, because it began to be used widely in the 1970's, just when American stomachs started ballooning." * He also suggests adding a tax on sugary drinks — 5 cents per fluid ounce. Kristof compared this sugary drink tax to the cigarette tax in terms of its impact on health. The battle against HFCS is highly important. I just wish that more people could have access to this information that Kristof wrote about.