• Food Navigator-USA, New York Times, Thursday, September 17, 2009 10:41 AM

Dr. Barry Popkin, co-author of a widely quoted study that noted the parallel between obesity and the rise in high fructose corn syrup consumption, tells Caroline Scott-Thomas that he should not have singled out the sweetener as the villain du jour. The result has been that consumers are shunning it and manufacturers are, in turn, removing it from products, often to replace it with sugar.

Popkin says he was just putting forward a theory that was intended to instigate further research. "We showed later that fructose from sugar has the same effect," he tells Scott-Thomas. "We were wrong in our speculations on high fructose corn syrup about their link to weight."

Popkin is an ardent supporter of a so-called "soda tax" to curb the rapidly expanding obesity rate in the U.S. "Much like cigarette taxes have worked grandly in the U.S. and elsewhere to reduce smoking," he says. "These are one of the only foods and beverages with no health benefits and clearly defined health cost."

William Neumann writes in the New York Times that the debate over a tax on sugary drinks "is starting to fizz over." While prominent doctors, scientists and policy makers rally behind it and President Obama says it's worth considering, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent believes the very idea is outrageous.

"I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink," he reportedly told a Rotary Club in Atlanta earlier this week. "It if worked, the Soviet Union would still be around." ;

Read the whole story at Food Navigator-USA, New York Times »