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Researchers say that most people deny eating a lot of sugar. But many in the scientific and medical communities see evidence to the contrary, and are concerned about sugar’s addictive quality. Barry Popkin, author of “The World is FAT” thinks that sugar-based diets, especially high consumption of soft drinks, are killing us. According to another source, Nature’s Cure Clinic of Portland, Oregon, our daily bread has turned into a non-stop feeding frenzy of sweets, artificial sweeteners and refined carbohydrates. And, they say that despite the warning signs – epidemic rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure and depression, people continue to indulge their sugar habit. What to do? Health and policy professionals like Profs. Popkin and world-renown public health scholar, Harvard’s Prof. Walter Willet, recommend drinking more water. But a new conundrum frequently heard involves consumers who don’t drink bottled water because of environmental concerns related to the packaging, but also don’t drink tap water because it doesn’t taste as good as other beverages. First, industry is working to solve its packaging problem. An analysis performed for the International Bottled Water Association by New York-based research firm Beverage Marketing Corporation shows that during the past decade the gram weight of a 16.9 ounce, plastic “single serve” water bottle has dropped by 33 percent: from 18.9 grams to 12.7 grams. And some PET plastic water bottles now weigh less than 10 grams. The study released during February 2010 estimated that between 2000 and 2008 more than 1.3 billion pounds of PET resin was saved by the bottled water industry through an industry practice known as “container light-weighting.” Although PET plastic bottled water containers make-up a tiny fragment of the waste material going into landfills (according to the U.S. EPA, the figure is one-third of one percent) lightweighting lessens the impact of water bottles that are not recycled. In fact, the national recycling rate for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottled water containers (.5 liter or 16.9 ounce) now stands at 31 percent for 2008, an improvement of 32 percent over the 2007 rate, according to the 2008 Report on PET Water Bottle Recycling by the National Association for PET Container Resources. Another important consideration for many people is that not all water tastes the same. In part, this is because tap water can change taste depending on the type and quantity of chemicals added to control contamination and seasonal fluctuations. Of course, the taste of bottled water varies by brand. Some have natural minerals and some have minerals added, and taste can vary according to the pH of the water. And while home water filters can help filter out many contaminants, they don’t always deliver the best tasting water, and can never equal “Bottle Quality Water From Your Own Tap,” as many filter marketing companies suggest. (More on that in another column.) Of the “Seven Deadly Sins”, gluttony and sloth may be the biggest of them all. In his December 2009 daily blur blog (thedailyblur.com), Tim Miles, wrote to offer a few road trip tips.

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