Sin taxes on Soda Pop? Part II (high fructose corn syrup)

Whether you believe soda is bad enough to be put in the same category as alcohol and tobacco or whether you believe it's the government's role to tax such substances at all - you can't deny the buzz that's surrounded high fructose corn syrup (soda's incriminating ingredient).

Natruo-geeks like my mother and myself have been crusading against unnatural sweeteners like HFCS, aspartame and Splenda (sucralose) for years, along with the evils of genetically modified and highly processed foods. What's so bad about corn syrup? It's best for you to educate yourself - I don't claim to be any kind of resource, but a few generally accepted "symptoms" of high fructose corn syrup are:

• obesity
• diabetes
• malnutrition (especially a concern for children)
• gingivitis (this is obvious)
• heart disease
• irregular/unhealthy menstrual cycles (such as severe pain)
• low brain function
• autism
• many more

Here's the full scoop by the Weston Price Foundation.

Aspartame (aka Nutrisweet, Equal etc.) has a similar list (yes, obesity is one of the side effects of "diet" products), but includes a few nastier side-effects, like cerebral palsy, epilepsy and cancer. Again, read for yourself.

The media - driven by corporations like Pepsi Co. and Monsanto - has come to the defense of HFCS. Their mantra is that it's gotten a bad rap, and that it's not bad for you at all.

Check out this new commercial by the Corn Refiner's Association.

Ok, Corn Refiner's Association, let me get this straight: your basic argument is that because this lady bases how she manages her and her family's health on hearsay without researching it for herself, we should...do the same by taking this commercial's advice to eat HFCS? Sounds like you want us to look as stupid as this lady.

Have your feelings about taxes on HFCS and aspartame beverages (soda pop!) changed at all? Having been raised by a slightly paranoid ultra conservative, I believe that personal liberty is at the heart of our government. Taxing people out of bad habits is not ideal - yet that's exactly what we're doing with cigarettes and alcohol, and we're probably not going to quit anytime soon.

Is it time we added high fructose corn syrup and aspartame to the list - products which have been banned multiple times by the FDA due to health risks? What about genetically modified products? Is this the government's job to tax these, or the FDA's job to educate and prohibit sales?

Now, for your amusement: