Food Police (page89)

There they go again. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) complains to the New Orleans Times-Picayune that snack foods are to blame for rising obesity numbers.

CSPI is out to prove why it won our 2000 Nanny of the Year Award. CSPI continues its unnecessary campaign against restaurant serving sizes in the Chicago Tribune.

Fresh from their Nutrition Summit demand for new taxes on snacks, sodas and high-calorie foods, the Center for Science in the Public Interest is now fighting the repeal of Washington D.C.'s unpopular and confusing retail sales tax on snacks and soft drinks. Sensing that D.C.'s version of the "Twinkie" tax is going down, CSPI's counter-proposal is a wholesale-level tax on the same products.

Anti-aspartame activists have taken their campaign against the sweetner across the pond to the UK with some success. The British government has in the past agreed with the FDA's assessment that aspartame is perfectly safe, but, having been influenced by the scare tactics of activists, some British officials are calling for further investigation. One Member of Parliament demanded, "Aspartame should be withdrawn immediately pending further investigation."