Snap, Crack, Pop

You know what one of the differences between cocaine and sugary cereal is?

If you overdose on cocaine, you can die. If you overdose on cereal, you can diet.


Might as well face it, you're addicted to loops (photo: flickr/Zanastardust)

This is common sense, right? And yet, in his latest blog post, New York Times' food crusader Mark Bittman writes that "a growing body of research suggests that foods sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup can be as addictive as nicotine or cocaine." The story which Bittman links to in The Daily Mail blares the headline, "Are cupcakes as addictive as cocaine?" Phrasing this as a question and using words like "suggests" allows these journalists to sound skeptical and somewhat objective while still advancing a sensational notion. (The Daily Mail story does include a dissenting quote from someone with the American Beverage Association to provide the minimum amount of balance.)

In the good old days, the food police would label stuff they didn't like as junk food. Now they want us to equate less-than-healthy eats with illegal drugs.

Further down in his post, Bittman frets about the aggressive lobbying and marketing behind the big cereal brands. I don't doubt that he's sincerely concerned about the health of kids, but he seems to overlook the role of parents in moderating what kids eat. No amount of lobbying or advertising can force parents to buy bad cereal, and if you take away your kids' Froot Loops and replace them with something healthier, they may whine but they won't need to detox at the Promises clinic or commit crimes to keep feeding their habit.

But this isn't really about parenting. It's about liberals' desire to control the public's dietary and media intake. They want to control which products hit the marketplace. Control can be very addicting, after all.