You know you reading an excellent book when something you read makes explicit a fact or observation that you didn't even realize you had. This is the case with the current book I'm reading, Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. In specific, at 29 years of age, I still consider myself to be relatively young. Yet, the days when one could easily obtain a mere 12 ounces of soda at one time - common when I was a child - seem to be those of a bygone era. Vending machines now sell soda only in massive 20 ounce packages. Who drinks that much soda at one time? Unfortunately the answer to that question is, more and more people do, thereby contributing to the epidemic of obesity in this country.

The reason why soda companies do this is fairly complicated, but is has to do with the ever falling price of corn. Today, coca cola (or any soda) is made mostly out water and high fructose corn syrup. Since the 1970's, our government has given subsidies to farmers to grow corn thus insentivising them to grow more and more of it. As a result, we have a massive surplus of corn and the price of corn is so low, it sells for less than it costs farmers to grow it. Recall that, after water, corn is the principle ingredient in your coke. What happens if the product you manufacture becomes cheaper to produce? You try and sell it to more and more people. But, we're not talking about cars or computers here. The market for something like soda is what economists call "inelastic." There's a limit to how much humans can drink. But, that hasn't stopped to soda companies from stretching, tugging and inflating the market to a near bursting point. "The price per ounce is as low as ever. Therefore, we're not going to sell you a mere 12 ounces of it. You're going to buy 20 ounces and you'll like it!" And, of course, consumers will buy pretty much whatever is marketed to them.

There's really no reason why anyone should ever drink more than 8-12 ounces of concentrated sugar at a time. In fact, our bodies are exquisitely adapted via the process of evolution to thrive in an environment where no such foodstuff exists. Therefore I propose that, like cigarettes, we add a surgeon general's warning to any concentrated sugar drink that is packaged in quantities greater than 12 ounces. It should read something like this: Consumption of this beverage in one sitting is likely to lead to weight gain, diabetes, loss of teeth, use of poor grammar and impregnation of your mentally challenged girlfriend with your ninth child whom you may name Cletus.