[quote=ocrenter]sugar activates the same regions of the brain as cocaine.[/quote]
So does, sex, excerise, listen to soothing music, spicy food, sun light, laugh, cry, and chocolate.

[quote=ocrenter]The key here is introduction to the population of extremely plentiful and very cheap highly processed food and drinks rich in fat and sugar.

The effect is similar to when the inner city population was introduced to extremely plentiful and very cheap highly processed crack.

In the case of crack, the addiction rate skyrocketed. In the case of cheap high calorie processed food and drinks, the obesity rate skyrocketed.[/quote]Again your crack and sugar analogy is ludicrousness.

Even if I agree with your premise, it’s impossible to regulate. Unlike tobacco, which doesn’t go into anything else. If you attack the root of the sweet problem, which is sugar and not soda, and tax it, then you all of a sudden introduce artificial food inflation, since sugar is in a lot of different things. Which mean you’ll be hurting the poor and middle class the most, since food cost will affect them the most.

If your goal is to stamp out obesity, then sugar shouldn’t be your own target. Work hours, vacation days, portion size, fat, complex carbohydrate, video games, computers, and many other should have the same amount of scrutiny. After all, if we go back to single income family and mom make home cook meals for dinner and dad and kids brown bag for lunch, then the obesity probably would probably be a non-issue or at least drastically reduced. Also, if kids go outside to play like they used to, instead of sitting in front of the TV or computer, then they would burn off the sugar they consumed.