Activists Attack Again By Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D. The premier food nannies, those folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), are at it again. Not content with disparaging all foods and beverages they don’t like, they’re now agitating to reverse a rule by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to “prevent states from using federal nutrition education funds to discourage soda consumption.” According to their legal affairs director, Bruce Silverglade, such beverages are “the only food or beverage directly linked to obesity.” Well, I doubt it. Over the past few decades Americans’ consumption of many foods has increased along with that of soft drinks; but CSPI probably prefers to ignore that—it doesn’t square with their demonization of soft drinks. If all soft drinks were suddenly gone from our lives, it’s unlikely that we’d see a great diminution in the prevalence of obesity.Obesity is a lifestyle issue—one that is too complex to be dealt with by simply eliminating one type of beverage.
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