Saturday morning roundup

North Sudan continues to brutalize Darfur.

Milbank and Collins on the slate of presidential contenders.

The juice box pundits are all grown up.

Yawn. I'm getting so sick of posting about this, but I can't help myself: organic soil is just as productive.

I find this article on sugar substitutes, as well as the one it's based on, disingenuous or at best incomplete. I can't see how agave nectar is "as processed as high fructose corn syrup"--have you seen King Corn? Do you know what you have to do to make HFCS? But both articles miss the point: it's how, and how often, you use the sugar substitutes. Yes, they're still sugars--that is the bottom line. I still use agave for desserts, but for 'every day' use, I eliminate the middle man and just use fruit. I.e. if I'm making a chocolate soy shake or chocolate pudding, I'll sweeten it with frozen berries or fresh pomegranate. It's like those articles that measure food affordability by dollar per calorie--of course most plant-based foods are going to lose in that game, because it's a stupid, irrelevant game. We, as a country and probably world, consume way too much sugar and should consume less of it for everyone's good. Once you moderate your overall consumption of added sugar, you don't need to split hairs about which substitute is less harmful, because you're not consuming enough of it to make a difference.

Are food dyes dangerous even in moderation?