“Sugar-loaded beverages are the scourge of our nation!”

This refrain has become so familiar in our household that I’m pretty sure my three kids have stopped hearing me scream it.

But by now they are clear on this: if we were to eliminate sugar-loaded beverages (including wily, cagy “sports drinks”) we would deal a real blow to the obesity epidemic in this country.

My three understand that no one should even THINK of purchasing, let alone drinking, a “mega jug” of soda.

Unless . . .  and this is critical . . . buying said soda will potentially help the health of 3 million people!

When one member of KFC franchise recently offered to donate a dollar from the sale of every “mega jug” of soda to JDRF, the blogosphere went wild.

The outrage followed this logic:

How on earth could a corporation sell soda to benefit T1D research when unhealthy eating is at the root cause of diabetes?!

PEOPLE!!!!  Drinking soda has NOTHING TO DO WITH type 1 diabetes.

I’ll say it another way: Unhealthy food choices ARE NOT THE REASON people’s body’s stop producing insulin.

Or another way:  NO LIFESTYLE DECISIONS affect whether or not someone’s beta cells will be destroyed by his or her immune system.

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease that strikes suddenly and without warning and WE DO NOT KNOW WHY.

We can, though, take soda off the list of potential causes.  And we are working hard to find out!

Which is why I have no problem at all taking money that comes from people buying large sugar-loaded beverages when I am really vehemently opposed to sugar-loaded beverages.

I think what KFC is doing is fine–and not just because I share initials with the fried chicken magnate.

I APPRECIATE what they are doing.

Almost as much as I would appreciate the general public’s understanding of this:

People with T1D could’ve lived on 7Up or Pepsi or Fanta orange and their diet would’ve had nothing, at all, to do with the fact that they now have the disease.

To KFC, I say: thank you.