Banned?! NOT In America! What it is, and what it does(to you)!

[longBallLima]

Seriously?

The difference is personal choice.

That list is a series of chemicals that has no right to be included in the food supply. Most people are unaware of the dangers of such additives because they assume it's safe. They assume that because the regulatory agencies that are supposed to be watch dogs for this type of thing are asleep at the wheel. Corrupt. Politically and monetarily motivated, etc.

Everyone and their mother knows that if you drink gallons of soda everyday you're gonna turn into a fatass with diabetes. That doesn't mean I need big brother to watch me and tell me I can't buy two gallons of soda when I'm out to eat. If I choose to do that and I know the consequences of my actions, then that's on me.

People don't know the consequences of consuming these chemicals. They don't even know there are consequences for consuming them.

That my friend, is a BIG difference.

one will kill you and "everyone" knows it, the other one will kill you and no one knows it. is that the big difference?

and i'll disagree that the common uneducated public has a full understanding of the consequences of drinking soda, ever been to a walmart? pretty sure almost everyone there thinks soda is not that bad and a just a little treat, as long as you buy the low fat ice cream.

that people will get up in arms like they did in NY because their fatass didn't wanna get up to buy another soda, then something like the NSA thing happens and there's not one NY-er going to the white house to bitch is, to me, a demonstration of how it is not about what they think is good for society, but just how anything affects their fat ass.

now, im not gonna take a big ban-soda stance and i can't say i necessarily agree with a complete ban, but if i'd have my way, they tax the shit out of soda and alcohol, much like it is done to tobacco and have the proceeds go to incentives to small farmers who don't grow corn

[longBallLima]

My post is unclear. I mean the government won't educate us about proper diet because it is against the special interest groups interest. The government isn't going to rescue us, just ask all those folks too weak and stupid to escape Katrina. They were sure the government was going to take care of them. We see how that worked out for them. This catastrophe is no different.

agreed. my point is close to yours: government is ineffective and run by large interest groups. i just question that the whole solution is less regulation, rather than effective/inteligent regulation. less regulation is exactly how the large interest groups get their way.

[Macdon1588]

agreed. my point is close to yours: government is ineffective and run by large interest groups. i just question that the whole solution is less regulation, rather than effective/inteligent regulation. less regulation is exactly how the large interest groups get their way.

I agree that smart regulation would help, but this is the worst government in America's history. When you take a long hard look at campaign finance, you'll realize that both parties are financed by, more or less the same large corporate interest. So, even though the clowns may change, the circus remains the same. For this reason, no one is talking about dangerous it is that ADM and ConAgra are monopolies that can single handedly drive the price of grain and other food stocks FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD. You can see their influence in the dangerous homogenization of crops in the Midwest where there is basically nothing but corn. (I'm fairly certain they grow nothing else in Iowa.;-)). Also not talked about is how suspicious it is that old cigarette giants were allowed by up a major portion of the processed food market. (And we wonder why our food has become addictive.)

[Cdsnuts]

one will kill you and "everyone" knows it, the other one will kill you and no one knows it. is that the big difference?

Seems like a pretty big difference to me. The old adage of what you don't know won't hurt you comes to mind here. It certainly doesn't ring true.

[longBallLima]

Seems like a pretty big difference to me. The old adage of what you don't know won't hurt you comes to mind here. It certainly doesn't ring true.

i'm just not sure why you wouldn't suggest then awareness of the harmful effects of the ingredients in favor of a complete ban, so they are both on the same level, meaning, harmful and people know about it.

[longBallLima]

I agree that smart regulation would help, but this is the worst government in America's history. When you take a long hard look at campaign finance, you'll realize that both parties are financed by, more or less the same large corporate interest. So, even though the clowns may change, the circus remains the same. For this reason, no one is talking about dangerous it is that ADM and ConAgra are monopolies that can single handedly drive the price of grain and other food stocks FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD. You can see their influence in the dangerous homogenization of crops in the Midwest where there is basically nothing but corn. (I'm fairly certain they grow nothing else in Iowa.;-)). Also not talked about is how suspicious it is that old cigarette giants were allowed by up a major portion of the processed food market. (And we wonder why our food has become addictive.)

Agreed to much here, other than the worst govt. While this administration is wildly disappointing, i find that the harm caused by its predecessor and another handful of administrations in american past is more everlasting. and bad as it is, i still think the other option we had was even worse. but i get that this specific point is very subjective so all this is obviously IMHO

[Cdsnuts]

i'm just not sure why you wouldn't suggest then awareness of the harmful effects of the ingredients in favor of a complete ban, so they are both on the same level, meaning, harmful and people know about it.

They're harmful on two totally different levels.

Awareness would work, but do you think it's completely necessary to have poison in the food supply? Soda's ingredients are bad for you, but they aren't straight up poison. That's what those chemicals are. Poison, plain and simple.

Would you be okay if they started putting small amounts of arsenic in the food as a preservative as long as everyone was told about it? To me this is the same exact thing.

It's not food, and it has no place in food.

[longBallLima]

They're harmful on two totally different levels.

Awareness would work, but do you think it's completely necessary to have poison in the food supply? Soda's ingredients are bad for you, but they aren't straight up poison. That's what those chemicals are. Poison, plain and simple.

Would you be okay if they started putting small amounts of arsenic in the food as a preservative as long as everyone was told about it? To me this is the same exact thing.

It's not food, and it has no place in food.

we might have to agree to disagree here. a number of additives in soda such as coloring are not food. carbonation itself has no place in food, IMO.

IMO both are bad and both should be regulated. since people get extra butthurt over something being taken away, i dont see soda as that harmful that you could just overtax it, but i'm still in favor of "big brother" putting its fingers in there.

[Cdsnuts]

we might have to agree to disagree here. a number of additives in soda such as coloring are not food. carbonation itself has no place in food, IMO.

IMO both are bad and both should be regulated. since people get extra butthurt over something being taken away, i dont see soda as that harmful that you could just overtax it, but i'm still in favor of "big brother" putting its fingers in there.

Not might...were going to disagree here.

Some things are more harmful then others, period. When you look at that list and the effects of those chemicals and think that's okay to include in the food chain.....well to each their own I guess. To me it's crazy.

What you're in favor of is a slippery slope. First it starts off with telling us how much soda we can buy, and next it's how many kids we can have and how many nights a week we can bang our wives. It starts off small and grows......if they can tell us how much soda to buy, where does the line get drawn?

Slippery slope.

[Macdon1588]

Agreed to much here, other than the worst govt. While this administration is wildly disappointing, i find that the harm caused by its predecessor and another handful of administrations in american past is more everlasting. and bad as it is, i still think the other option we had was even worse. but i get that this specific point is very subjective so all this is obviously IMHO

The "blame Bush game" is a worn out game, but it is an excellent example of my point. People blame Bush for a variety of things. Some of which I agree with such as the war in Iraq is unjustified. However, the most damaging things to this country started long before Bush.

When you study the housing crisis in depth for example, you'll find that the banks that caused the crisis where empowered to do so in the Clinton administration by a BIPARTISAN effort that overturned bank regulation that had been in place since the Great Depression. It was sold to the American public by telling people that every American deserved to own their own home. Remember how awesome that sounded? There was also Free Trade which has pitted American Labor against the slave labor of the third world. I don't have time to go into that.

The current administration has merely expanded upon all of initiatives of the previous one. I know that's a hard pill to swallow, but from bailing out the mega banks to continuing the war, the circus has remained the same only the clowns have changed. If you doubt me, just read up on the NSA program. It is an Obama expansion of a Bush patriot program put in place because the sheep in this country BEGGED for more false security from the boogie man of terrorism. That terrorism that is most likely caused by our continual forays into shitty foreign policy that is in practice little more than corporate colonialism. (See Halliburton areas of operation and you'll see what I mean.)