OK, so my flamethrowing blurb about vaccination didn't exactly have us all singing Kumbaya today. But I think we can all agree with the thoroughly unbiased research organization, Sugar Information, Inc., when they point out that Suzy here "needs energyless, artificially sweetened foods and beverages like a turtle needs a seat belt."
This 1965 ad's zipping around the web like a toddler hopped up on Pixie Stix, but I haven't seen anyone capture the valuable yet hard-to-read "Note to Mothers [sic]" at the bottom, so here it is:
Exhaustion may be dangerous--especially to children who haven't learned to avoid it by pacing themselves. Exhaustion opens the door a little wider to the bugs and ailments that are always lying in wait. Sugar puts back energy fast--offsets exhaustion. Synthetic sweeteners put back nothing. Energy is the first requirement of life. Play safe with your young ones--make sure they get sugar every day.So let's forget all this vaccine talk, and sugar our kids' to health together!
We Need Sugar - 1965 [vintage ads via bb]
I think the same person wrote my "Cooking For Young Adults" cookbook, circa 1976. it was released by Rogers Sugar, who must have also had a sizable stake in a lard company and claimed "the average adult needs between 3000 and 3500 calories per day. Sugar provides those calories in an easily digestible form so you have the energy you need, when you need it"
I refuse to give my kids sugar on religious grounds. Plus, it causes some kind of disease, I'm sure. And it is a gateway drug to disposable diapers and formula use...
[I was just talking to Barbara Walters about that, she said the same thing. -ed.]