Shopping

I'm rarely allowed in grocery stores. Mrs. T contends she would rather supervise a kindergarten field trip to the store than go with me. That my friends, as Mark Twain would say is a statistic.

Grocery shopping is a competitive sport for Mrs T and her family. Her mother is out at the crack of dawn. She'll then call her 4 children to let them know what's on sale today. A day without the grocery is like a day without sunshine.


While I am not allowed to go, I do get to hear about it though, and for the past year, a constant refrain is how much soda has gone up. I've figured out why.

Let me take you back to the summer of 2007. Everything was expensive. Gas, milk, soda, corn, beef. Much of the grain and beef prices could be laid at the feet of the ethanol debacle. Farmers grew fuel instead of feed.

So all the sudden sugar is cheaper than corn. Want proof? Notice the soda ads lately. Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew Throwback. Snapple with better stuff? Pop is being made with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.

For years Mexican markets have run a gray market for Mexican bottled Coke. Those bottles have always been made with sugar.

It is hotly debated and vehemently denied by the corn syrup makers that fructose turns off a receptor that says I've had enough. That is one reason Super Big Gulps are possible. It's possibly another reason why we are as big as houses.

I prefer the taste of sugar, and hope it hangs round a while. Happy Mother's Day moms.

Toad