sugar

Obviously, we need food labels. We need to know what the product is in that multicolored can or box, and having the information on the nutritional content of the product can be helpful when used appropriately.

Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that causes a life-threatening infection.

We want to hear what kids around the nation (and globe!) want to know about science and health.

So reducing sugar-sweetened beverages and overall sugar consumption should decrease the obesity surge, right? Or at least that's what those who are advocating taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are telling us.

Soda taxes are many things. Obnoxious. Unscientific. An example of government overreach. The one thing they aren't is racist, yet precisely that case was made by Seattle Times reporter Gene Balk1. 

Food and nutrition companies always capitalize on whatever fad diets are currently in fashion to shamelessly promote their products. Science is of secondary concern, if it's a concern at all.

If this trend continues, Canadians may someday have more access to sugar than they have to ice skating. 

For years - no, make that decades - we've been warned about the dangers of dietary fat. It has too many calories, it leads to high cholesterol and heart disease, too much can cause obesity, and on and on.

Our consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has been linked to virtually every illness known to man (only a slight exaggeration) — including obesity and type 2 diabetes — to name just a couple.

Busybodies in the American public, never content to leave other people alone, always seem to need a common enemy to rally against. For years, it was McDonald's. Then it was Monsanto and Big Pharma. Now, it's Big Soda.