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Opinion: The high school class that can save America from its obesity crisis

Students eat lunch before a bank of vending machines at a school in Chicago in 2004.
(Tim Boyle / Getty Images)
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To the editor: Christine Vaughan and Tamara Dubowitz advocate placing an additional tax on high-calorie drinks that have added sugar. That is a start, but a feeble one. Where would that additional tax money go? Eaten up (to use a pun). (“Fixing America’s food deserts alone won’t fix our terrible diets,” Opinion, Dec. 11)

The way to change eating habits in large numbers is by reaching the kids. Yes, use that tax money to reinvest in mandatory nutrition and cooking classes (what used to be home economics).

If kids learn about the causes of obesity and what a lack of good nutrition can cause, they will help parents be more selective in making their shopping choices. Teach them to note sugar and fat content, how to count calories and, yes, how to cook nutritionally.

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When you walk into a grocery store, you can’t help but notice row upon row of soft drinks, white bread and chips. No wonder super markets are growing bigger and bigger.

Beverly Lever, Calabasas

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To the editor: I don’t think more taxes is the answer to the American obesity problem.

Food manufacturers should stop putting so much sugar in their foods, including everything from cereal to tomato sauce to TV dinners. Reducing or eliminating sugar additives would lessen some Americans’ sugar addiction.

The irony is that food with less sugar (and less salt) often tastes better.

Pam Polivka, Santa Clarita

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