The Government Already Regulates Sugar in Our Food

A February 2012 report in the journal Nature suggests sugar is toxic and should be regulated like tobacco or alcohol. As a result, news outlets across America are writing about whether the government should be involved in our food. The common response is “stay out of it” and “that never works.” However, the government regulates substances in our food all the time and is doing so right now.

As of not too long ago, food manufacturers were not allowed to sweeten their products with Stevia. Stevia, a zero calorie plant based sweetener, has been used for years in other countries. In America, however, it was banned by the FDA as a food additive—yet the FDA approved use of the controversial Aspartame as an artificial sweetener! That meant that if you wanted to purchase and ingest Stevia you would have to go to a health food store where it could only be sold as a food supplement. Nobody was legally allowed to make a food product sweetened by Stevia in America until recently.

In 2008, the FDA approved the use of Stevia with a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) acceptance letter for Cargill, the largest privately owned company in the US. Who knows why the FDA suddenly changed its mind about Stevia? Riding the wake of that decision, other Stevia companies and food makers followed up with their own FDA applications and received GRAS acceptance letters for their brands of Stevia products. Stevia is now okay in the USA.

The United States government subsidizes the production of corn. Corn is used in producing High Fructose Corn Syrup, which, according to a 2009 report entitled Sweetening the Pot from The Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University:

The report also states:

If you argue that the government should not be involved in food and farming at all then fight to have subsidies removed. Problem is, the average American only gets upset when they fear that their children might have soda pulled from the menu in the school cafeteria. This sounds scary because they claim it’s a gateway to the government telling them that they can’t carry weapons or smoke cigarettes. Sugar supporting public relations people know this kind of fear so they spin an issue of public health as one of “personal responsibility.”

Is there a problem with regulating the kinds of foods our children eat in school if we’re working in favor of fresh and healthy? It’s not hard to figure out what is a good or bad food choice for children. Why not prevent corporations from putting commercials for junk food in front of our kids during children’s television programming? Remember, someone had to argue that cigarette manufacturers shouldn’t be allowed to market to kids or advertise on television. Imagine the backlash for the maverick who (years ago) suggested that smoking be banned from hospitals! Yet people still smoke. And they own weapons. But kids don’t—not as a part of their school curriculum.

One day we’re going to look back at this sweet period in time and say, “What were we thinking?”

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