Readers React: Label sodas like we label cigarettes

To the editor: Your editorial recognizes the importance of ingredient labels on cleaning items but disagrees with explanatory information on beverage labels. (“2 state bills show when product labeling is helpful and when it isn’t,” editorial, March 9)

Many people do not realize that drinking sugar places unique demands on the body. One step in fighting obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease is informing the public.

Sweetened beverages need a warning label just as cigarettes need a warning label.

Ellen Alkon, MD, Rolling Hills Estates

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To the editor: Actually, cleaning products and soda aren’t that different.

We have some of the hardest water in the nation up here in the mountains, so when the mineral deposits overtake our toilets, I pour in a can of coke. If you could watch soda pop dissolving the deposits, you’d never drink it again.

Let’s just add “toilet cleaner” to the labeling on sodas.

Rosalie Maggio, Pine Mountain, Calif.

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