Group Wants Government To Micromanage Soda Recipes

There’s no aspect of our day-to-day lives too trivial to escape the micromanagement of nanny statists.

Maybe we should just have the government start restaurants, and we can all vote on what sort of foods can be offered. For the good of public health.

Soda and other sugary drinks have unsafe levels of high-fructose corn syrup or other added sugars, a consumer group says, and it is urging the government to determine a safe level to reduce Americans’ “dangerously high sugar consumption.”

The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a petition today with the Food and Drug Administration urging the agency to identify a safe level for added sugars in beverages.

The petition is supported by a letter signed by 41 nutrition scientists and physicians and the public health departments of 10 major cities including Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle.

It’s one thing for the government to warn the public about unhealthy foods and ingredients. Setting aside whether or not the government warnings are, in fact, accurate, at least citizens are still left with the ultimate choice as to whether or not to consume a particular food.

But it’s another thing entirely for the government to promote public health by micromanaging what citizens can and cannot eat. We seem to be sliding from mere warnings to a situation where we’re not even allowed a choice. For our own good.