First Global Warming - Now Global Sweetening!

[Geee]

American Thinker:

From the same sort of academic busybodies who gave us the ever-popular global warming panic comes a new prediction of catastrophe. This newest ginned up rationale for enabling Liberal-Progressive-Democrats (L-P-Ds) to have more control over the behavior of ordinary citizens hasn't been given catchy name yet, so rather than wait for the mainstream media to compare notes on JournoList, let's all agree to call it...global sweetening!

Yes, my friends, President Obama's fellow travelers within the progressive movement have decided that they have to find a new excuse for imposing government controls since climate change (née global warming) failed to achieve their overarching goal of controlling the car you drive; the fuel you're allowed to use; the type of light bulb you are allowed to use; and, after they get the "smart grid" in place, how warm you'll be allowed to keep your home.

Apparently, three researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have decided that sugar must be regulated in the same way in which tobacco and alcohol are regulated. The three scientists, Dr. Robert Lustig, Dr. Laura Schmidt, and Dr. Claire Brindis, voiced their view in an opinion piece in the journal Nature that was published February 1, 2012, titled "The Toxic Truth About Sugar." They argue that it's a misnomer to consider sugar just "empty calories": "There is nothing empty about these calories. A growing body of scientific evidence is showing that fructose can trigger processes that lead to liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases. A little is not a problem, but a lot kills -- slowly."

"We are in the midst of the biggest public health crisis in the history of the world," declared Dr. Lustig. "And nobody even gets it. Nobody understands how important this is because they don't consider it 'public health.' They consider it 'personal responsibility.'"

Dr. Lustig is a professor of pediatrics and director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) program at UCSF. His co-author, Dr. Schmidt, is professor of health policy at UCSF's IHPS and co-chair of UCSF's Clinical and Translational Science Institute's Community Engagement and Health Policy Program. This is a very weighty title which sounds a lot like Community Organizer for Invading Your Health Privacy.

In the article, Dr. Schmidt claimed that she and her cohorts were being very sensitive to individual freedom of choice.