Opposition to COOL Change & America's Drinking Problem

Opposition to COOL Change & America’s Drinking Problem plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The World Trade Organization recently ruled against the United States' implementation of the Country-of-Origin-Labeling law. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson is urging U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to pursue a robust appeals process on the WTO's decision.

JOHNSON: The WTO decision against COOL did not find fault with our law, it simply found fault with the rules and regulations and the manor in which that law was implemented. Consumers have a right to know where their meat comes from and they overwhelmingly want to know just that.

The U.S. has a drinking problem. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, the average American guzzles 44.7 gallons of the sweet stuff every year. Diet sodas have been scrutinized for years but regular octane sodas are suspect as well in helping the girth of American’s expand. Besides the connections to diabetes, drinking non-diet soda leads to dramatic increases in dangerous hard-to-detect fats. Some of the ingredients are also suspect like aspartame and brominated vegetable oil, a toxic flame retardant that keeps the artificial flavoring from separating from the rest of the liquid.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

If you thought the fight was over guess again. Yet another round has begun in the fight between corn sweeteners and sugar. The latest report is based on a study conducted at the University of Florida where forty women and men were given twenty-four ounces of sweetened soft drinks. Results determined that the HFCS sweetened drink tests showed slightly higher fructose levels in the test subjects’ bloodstreams than the sugar sweetened soft drinks. Dr. Richard Johnson, who helped conduct the study stated that both sweeteners have similar biological effects, with subtle differences. The fact that the study’s authors noted that the sugar, or sucrose, had broken down into the same sugar compounds as those in HFCS will more than likely not become the primary focus of this report. The food police would like us all to believe that our nation’s obesity problem stems directly from the ingestion of HFCS. Moderating sugar intake is important. The moderation of all food intake is important for over all health. Truth is, as long as people refrain from exercise but continue to overeat even the complete removal of HFCS from their diets won’t stop the scale from inching upward.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.