After all, we now know that excess sugar consumption is, along with smoking and drinking, one of the greatest risk factors for chronic disease. Sugar consumption has tripled in the past fifty years, and we've seen a corresponding rise in obesity, along with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other diet-induced illnesses. When it comes to the childhood obesity epidemic, soda is Public Enemy #1.

As Laura Schmidt, a medical sociologist who co-authored the recent report The Toxic Truth About Sugar for the science journal Nature, explained to CNN, "One of the saddest effects of sugar overconsumption is to dampen the natural hormones that tell kids' bodies when they've eaten enough, leading them to feel hungry even as they overeat."

The beverage industry insists that soda is being unfairly scapegoated; the real problem, they say, is that kids just aren't getting enough exercise. Soda spokespersons are fond of pointing out that carbonated beverages have been around for over two hundred years. So, why blame soda for an epidemic that's only a few decades old?

Well, consider those iconic, downright dainty 8-ounce bottles of Coke, now replaced by the outlandishly oversized Big Gulp, which weighs in at as much as 64 ounces. Let's also factor in an explosion of availability, vending machines everywhere you turn, prime supermarket shelves piled high and aggressive advertising towards African-Americans and Hispanics. And the same sugary drinks that were once an occasional treat are now sucked down at an astonishing rate of 45 gallons per person per year. That's 42 pounds of sugar.

Soda is the single largest source of calories for teens and, not coincidentally, it's the "food" product most marketed to children (to the tune of $500 million dollars annually), who are so easily influenced, and love to imitate their favorite celebrities. Couple this with the industry's mandate to increase sales... i.e. double consumption!, as they launch a new round of soda wars. Well, Houston, we have a problem.

Of course, parents have the primary responsibility for teaching their kids healthy habits and protecting them from harm. But what parent, no matter how well-intentioned, could possibly compete with the infinite celebrity firepower the soda industry unleashes to captivate impressionable taste buds and cultivate lifelong brand loyalty? Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and Mean Joe Green are just a few of the famous folks who helped to make soda-guzzling seem essential to the good life. Popular television shows are compounding this fizzy folly by brazenly embedding the product throughout their programs. American Idol, the worst of the offenders, sells out its fan base nightly.

A generation ago, celebrities invited young people to share a smoke, be cool with Kool or get macho with Marlboro -- a deplorable misuse of celebrity clout that we look back on with regret. Clark Gable did it. Spencer Tracy, John Wayne and Bette Davis too. They didn't know any better at the time. But we do know now the terrible consequences of cigarettes -- and of soda too. With childhood obesity rates tripling since 1980, it's time for an "all hands on deck" moment.

So, here's the ask: in the midst of an epidemic that threatens to kill far too many of our kids, we appeal to the common sense and decency of our celebrities and ask them -- no, beg them -- to stop accepting soda and sugary drink endorsements.

It's going to take a major societal shift to get our children healthy again and we are going to need all the role models we have to help make it happen.

If you are a public figure who possesses the kind of influence over kids that a soda company craves, think twice before saying yes, and then say no. Join the California Center for Public Health Advocacy's Kick the Can campaign and help give our kids a fighting chance at a healthy future.

I have to admit few commercials evoke warm holiday memories more than the ubiquitous Coca-Cola ads such as those polar bear commercials. Remember the one that starts with two polar bear cubs struggling to pull a Christmas tree up a snowy hill? After some help from mom (or possibly dad) -- the little ones are rewarded with an ice-cold coke for a job well done. Knowing what I know now about the effects of sugary drinks on children the image of kids chugging down a Coke [or in this case polar bear cubs] evokes the same feelings I'd get if they were taking a deep drag on cigarettes.

Oh give me a break -- it's just a soda, I can hear the comments already. A little soda once in a while is not going to harm anyone. Sadly, many kids are drinking a lot more than just a little bit of soda every day. The statistics are sobering -- Americans suck down about 30 percent more calories from sugar-sweetened drinks now than they did just 10 years ago. When it comes to children, they're gulping down up to 15 percent of their total calories for the day from these liquid candies. For teens its worse, soft drinks are the number one source of calories in a their diet. Did you know that a 12-ounce can of regular soda can contain as much as 10 and a ½ teaspoons of sugar. That's as much sugar found in two 1 ½ ounce chocolate candy bars.

Those numbers are shocking enough, however, what should give us all pause are the findings from one study that found if a child consumes just one drink filled with added sugar a day his or her chance of becoming obese increases by 60 percent! It's not surprising then that soda consumption is linked to childhood obesity, type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

These facts are fairly well known by now. Groups like Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity have been sounding the alarms for quite sometime. You'd think with all this information, the least soft drink companies could do is cut back on the advertising -- at least those focused on kids. Right? Wrong! According to our friends at the Rudd Center kids are getting bombarded with more and more ads every year. Take a look at their latest findings:

Soda Ad Exposure

• From 2008 to 2010, exposure to TV advertising for regular soda doubled for children.


• In 2010, while children saw 50% more ads on TV for sugary fruit drinks, adults saw twice as many ads for 100% juice.


• Capri Sun, Kool-Aid and Sunny D dominated children's exposure to sugary drinks on TV, together comprising 40% of children's total exposure to sugary drinks.

We should all find the fact that food companies are spending so much money on advertising directly to kids -- nearly $2 Billion a year -- truly disturbing. It doesn't sit well with our nation's pediatricians either. In 2006, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement which said exposure to advertising, "may contribute significantly to childhood and adolescent obesity, poor nutrition, and cigarette and alcohol use." According to the AAP, kids and teens view more than 3,000 ads a year, on television alone. They say research has shown, "that young children -- younger than 8 years -- are cognitively and psychologically defenseless against advertising."

Coke and Pepsi have gone even further, aided by spineless show producers, and their networks, by purchasing embedded ads directly into the shows content. The blurred line between the show and the ads pummel young viewers. The average age of an American Idol or X factor fan is 6-12! The beloved judges sip it as they dole out advice to the contestants. Celebrities chug it during the commercial breaks. Hardly seems right, does it.

For a while there it looked like the FTC and several other regulatory agencies, which are part of the so-called Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, were poised to take a strong stand on the issue. That was until last month when they caved-in to pressure from industry, which complained that the group's original recommended voluntary guidelines designed to limit the way unhealthy foods are sold to children between the ages of 2 and 17 was, "unworkable." Now the working group is thinking of changing the recommended age limits to kids between 2 and 11. Not only that, they're thinking of looking the other way when it comes advertising "seasonal or holiday confections" like Halloween or Easter candy, or at places such as theme parks or sporting events.

When will regulators get a backbone? They have to stop letting industry kick them around and keeping them from protecting the health of America's children? I know I'm not alone in my disgust.

Corporations are no longer allowed to advertise cigarettes on TV due to the potential impact it could have on our kids. When it comes to hard liquor, the government didn't ban it, the companies did it voluntarily. Can you imagine! It is now time to institute a similar TV advertising ban on soda. We are in the midst of a health epidemic. Some one has to start caring. Some food for thought as you sit down and give thanks for our children this holiday season.

A tad road weary, the couple has been traveling for months now, living out of their Prius and covering a wide array of stories about farmers, farms, food and sustainable agriculture. (Watch them at: ThePerrennialPlate.com.) Their food adventures have included hunting for frogs at the crack of dawn, noodling for catfish deep in Mississippi and foraging seaweed in the cold lakes of Maine. Okay, maybe a two-day respite on my farm wasn't exactly roughing it, even if they had to make dinner and do the dishes!

Daniel: I've never been to Martha's Vineyard, so when it worked out that our cross-country film shoot would have us very close to the famed island -- I checked in with Laurie David. She had been telling me about her organic garden since we first met and it was time to pay a visit. I figured it would be a little bit of a rest from our break neck trip around America. Little did I know she would put me to work. Actually, it's the great pleasure of any cook to go into a beautiful garden and create a menu from what is available.  Inspiration is at its height. Laurie did have her influence though: She was very proud of the cabbages and kale, not so fond of Swiss chard or raw tomatoes (I know, totally crazy!), and didn't know much about cooking turnips. So it was decided (unbeknownst to her) that in those challenges would lie the night's meal.

Laurie: I have had a few meals with Daniel, but until now none have been cooked by him. So you can imagine my excitement at the prospect of what he might make from my garden. We set the ground rules early -- no trips to the store were allowed, ensuring a local meal at its best, since nothing is more local than your own backyard. The garden was a bit torn up from Hurricane Irene's visit the week before but surprisingly we still had tomatoes ripening on the vines, turnips popping out of the soil, bok choy galore and the miracle of all miracle plants -- and the one that keeps on giving all summer long -- kale. (Plant a pot of that baby and feed your family for months!)

Bossy boots me started to prod Daniel, "What are you going to make? How about the beets? What about this lettuce, amazing we still have lettuce in August, huh?!" Apparently chefs need some time to think, so I busied myself cutting a cabbage and stacking the large outer leaves for Mirra to feed to the goats. Pretty soon he had a basket full of bounty and we headed (ran) for the kitchen.

Daniel: Mirra (camera woman/girlfriend/co-conspirator) and I had just come from Maine where we had collected a couple different types of amazing seaweed. So I started off with a broth made with the kelp. I then used that same broth to braise the turnips (along with some onion, ginger, star anise and the stems of various herbs). It was beautifully aromatic and just slightly hinted at the taste of the sea. We served the soup with a bouquet of vegetables from the garden: sautéed eggplant and turnip greens, bok choy, and just picked baby carrots. Raw nasturtium leaves were the last addition to the bowl, floating delicately on the surface -- a tasty ode to Lilly pads.

The soup course was followed by a kale and chard (because Laurie unknowingly proposed a challenge by vocalizing her distaste of chard) salad. This dish was a cross between a marinated chard salad I had at the Walrus and the Carpenter in Washington and a Kale Caesar from the Tartine Bread Cookbook. It's basically a creamy dressing using pecorino cheese and a little Martha's Vineyard honey, and topped with a beautiful fried egg (with a bright orange egg yolk, courtesy of Laurie's chickens). It was simple and to the point. In my opinion, delicious.

And on to the final course: Laurie and I had been talking a lot about the use of meat at restaurants and in our day-to-day lives. Both of us are trying to reduce the amount we eat, so I knew this meal should go all out vegetarian. It's easy with starters, but the main course can be a challenge without pasta or risotto. In comes the cabbage. A wonderfully versatile vegetable, of which I have started to grill. In this case I cut steak-sized wedges, and marinated them in good olive oil, balsamic and minced oregano. Let it sit till we were ready to eat and then charred each side. The sweet came through and it was almost everything a steak could have been.

Laurie: Not to put too fine a point on it, but OMG was that a fantastic dinner! It was everything I had dreamed of... and more! Every drop devoured. Savored. Dessert was simple blueberries and strawberries frozen from earlier in the summer, a gorgeous sunset and a hilarious verbal game that required everyone to name one of their idiosyncrasies (no better way to get to know someone fast!). The game's highlight was Mirra who revealed that both she and her mother love to drink... pickle juice. No kidding. Play this game at your dinner tonight and try the kale salad and cabbage main course. I plan on perfecting both by the time The Perennial Plate team makes their next house call.

A decrease in the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in human medicine alone is not enough. Substantial efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse of antimicrobials in animals and agriculture as well.