So why don't we hear about this?

Well, it could be that the people who are most exercised about nannying you about over your food don't want the market to determine the content of what you eat and drink. That would, after all, take it out of their hands.

Or it could be that a level sweetener playing field has no political sweetener in it: no votes to be had. Politicians know that the votes that really count are pocket-book votes. Corn is a big crop. How would Senator Grassley get re-elected were it not for the High Fructose Corn interest? He's often in the news, helping Archer Daniels Midland with some tariff question. (Last year the big issue was Mexico. Mexico had raised up a tariff against El Norte's corn syrup. Grassley was grossly offended by this breach of free trade.)

It gets tricky, though. Brazilians have figured out how to make ethanol biofuel from sugar cane, so the price of sugar is rising.

But could all this be irrelevant? The science of corpulence is spreading into dozens of books, Ladies Home Journal articles, and PBS documentaries, and it's having non-political effects. The demand for high-fructose-corn-syrup-based soft drinks is waning. I won't give up my remaining Coke until they pry the ice-cold can from my fat fingers, but hey: one consumer doesn't have much effect.

I'm sure Senator Grassley's been brought before the Big Boys and told to pushpushPush stronger pro-corn policy. But these players at the game of money aren't thinking high fructose corn syrup. They're thinking ahead of the game: we gotta make our biofuels in America; no foreign oil substitutes! It's patriotism, dagnabbit.

We'll no doubt soon see a high tariff on foreign-produced bio-origin fuels.

High fructose corn syrup? So yesterday.

That should mean one thing: let nature and markets take their course. The idea of switching back to refined sugar may, in this situation, seem like too little too late. But at least it's not politically impossible, like putting the coke back into Coca-Cola.

Yes, folks, call me old-fashioned (like the donut): I'd settle for just the sugar.

(NOTE: Nothing in this column should be construed to excuse serving any beverage other than water in the public schools. Further, nothing in this column should be construed to excuse any government program to subsidize, promote, penalize, or discourage adults from drinking any drink they want.)