Now I know not to vote for Danish
You do your readers a great service by informing them that Paul Danish is a candidate for Boulder County Commissioner. His recent piece opposing a tax on sugary drinks provides all the information any thinking voter needs in order to know how silly it would be to vote for this man.
If you limit yourself to the facts, the argument is very simple:
1) Sugar, especially in the highly processed forms of it found in soft drinks, is bad for you. Lots of sugar is very bad for you. All scientific research supports this fact. No study shows that processed sugar is beneficial in the human diet.
2) Sugary drinks have no nutritive value. You only have to read the nutritional label to find this out. They consist only of calories in the form of sugar.
3) Reduced sugar in the human diet leads to better health outcomes — again, a fact supported by research, where it has been found that excessive consumption of sugar is a risk factor for obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
4) A sugary-drinks tax has the general effect of reducing the consumption of sugary drinks, and as a sequel, of encouraging better health outcomes. For a list of the studies that support this, see the Wikipedia article entitled “Sugary drinks tax.”
If Mr. Danish were concerned with facts he would perhaps study them and get on board with the proposed tax. Instead he uses the forum of his column, generously provided by Boulder Weekly, to upchuck a long and colorful rant in which he targets many bugaboos of the popular imagination: big government, over-regulation, well-meaning liberals, the nanny state, food police. His freewheeling and folksy style is no doubt a balm for people like himself who take greater comfort in reacting and emoting than in thinking and analyzing.
But if you are inclined to analyze Mr. Danish’s writing in this piece you will find that there is really nothing there — he simply has a knee-jerk reaction and begins shooting wildly from the hip to defend it without regard for logic, reasoning or evidence. Indeed, I am tempted to use Mr. Danish’s column in my classes at CU as a case study of the various forms of fallacious logic and specious rhetoric.
A broader question that his column raises, and one that I hope your editors might address at some point, is this: why are readers of your paper subjected to this fooforaw? Doesn’t Boulder County have one of the highest rates of education in the country? Surely we deserve better than this.
Orin Hargraves/Niwot
Nurses for ColoradoCare: Count me in
While receiving my nursing degree many years ago, I recited the Florence Nightingale pledge to “devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.” To this day, I take my pledge very seriously. In my job as a public health nurse, “those committed to my care” included the entire community.
I am proud to be member of the most trusted profession in the country (Gallup poll) and believe that our state’s 72,000 nurses have the power to transform the course of health care by supporting the one plan that covers everyone. ColoradoCare, Amendment 69, will simplify access to health care, cover everybody with no deductibles, and make excellent care affordable.
I hope my fellow nursing colleagues will join me in supporting ColoradoCare. To learn more, go to www.ColoradoCare.org.
Marilyn Bouldin, RN/Salida, Colorado
Predictable Danish
Paul Danish’s commentary on Boulder’s sugar tax ballot initiative was entertaining, yet amply slanted with his dislike of government regulations and taxes. He claims the proposed 2 cent per ounce tax on sugary drinks is counter-productive and too aggravating.
He omitted a cogent example of a beneficial health-related tax, the tobacco taxes, with its clear associated decrease in smoking rates. The percent U.S. smokers has fallen from 30 percent in 1990 down to 17 percent in 2011.
With approximately 1/2 million deaths annually attributable to smoking, the decreased smoking rate is well worth the aggravation of supposed “Nanny-statism” taxes.
Sugary beverages surprisingly are nearly as damaging as smoking. Excess sugar, especially fructose, causes “fatty liver” (hepatic lipogenesis), which activates proteins that block insulin signaling, thereby causing insulin resistance, type II diabetes. It comprises 90 percent to 95 percent of all diabetes.
In 2010, diabetes contributed to over 234,000 deaths. It leads to heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, amputations, blindness, deafness and 6-year-shorter lifespan. We can become behaviorally addicted to high sugar content, especially for youth. At current growth rates, 1/3 of U.S. population will have diabetes by 2050.
Excess sugar also causes obesity and cavities. If that is not enough, consider our nation’s $322 billion annual cost of diabetes.
The diseases incited by excess sugar can be greatly reduced by a higher price on sugary drinks, plus related health education and support. Boulder’s ballot initiative dedicates all its tax for these purposes.
Thus, it may be even more effective than the tobacco tax, which averages only 2 percent of its tax for related health education and support. I respect Danish’s vast experience, yet find him inappropriate for our County Commissioner today. Our people want our County to proactively protect our public health and environmental sustainability much more strongly, than Paul Danish has demonstrated.
John C. Bollinger, PE/Lafayette
Brand New Congress
When people join forces change can happen [RE: The Highroad, Aug. 4]. Like when RESULTS and other groups got together to support the Reach Every Mother and Child Act. One hundred and seventy six representatives and 25 senators cosponsored this bill because people ask them to. Millions of mothers and children will not die from preventable causes when this legislation passes. So raise your voice to ask your representatives to pass this life-saving legislation.
Willie Dickerson/Snohomish, WA
