America has gotten a severely distorted view of what “Freedom” means. We also have a tendency to believe a little too much in our own over inflated collective ego. We politicize everything these days. This attitude that, “this is America and I have the freedom to be fat, lazy, and stupid” amazes me. We are also defiant beyond belief. With all the scientifically based information out there about the dangers of too big portion size and too much sugar and deep fried foods and such, we scoff at it all and eat things like Jumbo Twinkies, deep fried in lard. I was at a fair not long ago and actually saw a booth selling… are you ready for this? Deep fried butter. They were rolling sticks of butter in flour and deep frying them. They were also selling deep fried Krispy Kreme donuts, and several other severely unhealthy concoctions. There were people actually eating some of this garbage.

The way that junk food is nearly forced onto out society these days, and the fact that other products are taxed additionally for their negative properties, I see no problem with a bit extra being tagged on to these things.

Many of these sugarized drinks contain around 40 grams of sugar, and the worst kind of sugar, in a single can. Why not make them with 20 grams or less, which is still too much, and add some vitamins and minerals to them?

This is what I do whenever I succumb to the temptation to consume this crud. I dilute them, at least to one part pop to 4 parts water. I also do this with fruit juices which can be too concentrated in many cases.