If you plan to drink a soda while reading this editorial, be warned: “To help protect your waistline and your teeth, consider drinking diet sodas or water.” Insulting your intelligence? That’s one of the rotating health notices the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based lobbying group, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to require on non-diet soda cans. Another suggested warning is “The U.S. Government recommends that you drink less (non-diet) soda to help prevent weight gain, tooth decay, and other health problems.”

We don’t discount entirely the idea that there is a health problem in respect of soft drinks. Parents watch this stuff all the time. What rubs us the wrong way is the idea that the right way to go about dealing with this problem is through a system of government warnings. What next? How about on potato chips: “The American government warns running while eating is unhealthy.” Or on mangoes: “Safest to eat one bite at a time, not all in one go. Swallowing the pit may cause choking.” Do Americans need the obvious slapped on their foods?

Trying to worry the FDA into action, the CSPI also warns that teenagers are drinking “more high-calorie soft drinks than ever … despite growing concerns about obesity.” What the CSPI fails to mention is that studies – for example, in the April 2004 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a journal published by the American Medical Association – found that lack of exercise is the main contributor to obesity. Children who spend their day watching television, playing video games, and surfing the Web, instead of playing outdoors, are more likely to be obese. Pointing out the obvious to Americans is a waste of the FDA’s time – and of taxpayers’ dollars. To the CSPI’s petition we’d slap on: “Warning: Considers Americans Stupid.”