Cigarettes are still legal too.

Personally, I don't want the state running around banning everything but I would like accurate information about what things do to my body.

Well, there is an agency of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms that has worked hard to expose the dangers of each.

By comparison, I don't feel like anyone is telling us how harmful junk food is, except in terms of calorie counts.

Are there things we ingest that are genuinely poisonous to us? High fructose corn syrup? Red dye number 5? Bleached flour? Flame broiled meats over charcoal? Anything processed?

I mean, Coke Zero may not be great for us, but is it poisonous?

With a lot of money in the economy riding on the status quo, there's a very high standard for defining what is "poisonous." It will take a while for the science to get there.

It's sort of reminiscent of the first news reports that cigarettes might be hazardous to your health. Well, perhaps it wasn't for children, but look at all the healthy people who smoke. Doctors smoked, my mother was given a gold lighter for her 16th birthday by her dad (who passed away in his 60s from lung cancer.)

What we do for our own health is always a personal decision. Most of us balance personal preferences with reasonable accommodations for long term health (and therefore comfort.)

The issue here is one of federal policy, things that encourage the consumption of products that risk harming the population as a whole. It's scary enough to consider an aging boomer population supported by a much smaller younger generation -- but add dementia to the burden? Oy!

Plus, the danger of something doesn't remove its allure.

Motorcycles, guns, and cupcakes are all potentially lethal.

Hasn't hurt their popularity at all.

Well, I know that's the classic response... but akshully, I beg to differ. At least in some limited cases, and you'll allow me some personal perspective.

I remember as a kid being really, really impressed when my mom gave up smoking. She was in her late 30's or early 40's and the Surgeon General's warning had just come out. As a teenager, her own dad had encouraged her to smoke giving her a gold lighter for her 16th birthday. I was a pre-teen and remember how hard it was for her to give it up but remember it as something she did for me. I've never smoked -- not in small part to honor that effort for her.

Our kids have watched my husband struggle to deal with type 2 diabetes including a massive diet change and an exercise regime that has engaged us all. Part of what makes that work for him, I think, is knowing that there is a significant genetic component and that his effort will be recognized by the kids. In time that will protect them too.

This is awkward. At the end of the day, it's always personal.

I know I don't always drive safely, texts have been known to have been sent from my phone when I'm in the car. On the other hand, I can't imagine driving without a seatbelt. There was a time before national laws went into effect (encouraged by Federal Highway dollars) that required seatbelts. Before that my old beetle didn't even have seatbelts.

My message here is that scientific discovery and national policy really can make a difference in changing the choices individuals make about their own behavior for the good. I think it works by changing peer expectations (seatbelts), incentives (kids) and acceptance of fact (science.)

Altzheimer's and diet. It's got my attenshun. Big Panda hug. b

Want to end diabetes and never have to worry about cholesterol, heart attacks or health issues?

-Don't buy anything from the center of the supermarket; stick to the walls.

-If it comes sealed in a bag, don't eat it.

-If you can store it for more than a few days and it doesn't spoil, don't eat it.

Follow those three and you're 90+% of the way there.

Haha! I know a Michael Pollen devotee when I read one. Seven healthy words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

Here in Berkeley, he's one of our peeps.

You're both right.

And if everyone did as you said, many businesses would go under.

And that would probably be a good thing.

Yep, the sad reality of the US economy. Moral principles and economics are probably left to a new convos.

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

I'm putting that on my Nutrition stash.