Readers Write: (Feb. 23): The Affordable Care Act and jobs, sugar consumption, college

Charles Krauthammer denounces Obamacare and Micheal Hiltzik defends it (Opinion Exchange, Feb. 16). Both miss important points about the Congressional Budget Office report that 2.5 million people, no longer required to stay in their jobs to get health insurance, will quit.

Krauthammer totally ignores, and Hiltzik mentions only in passing, the would-be entrepreneurs, no longer needing to be tethered to their jobs, who will quit to go into business for themselves.

Neither pundit mentions at all the currently unemployed, who would gladly step into the jobs that will open up because of Obamacare.

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If working people took Krauthammer's divide-and-conquer bait on Obamacare, we would simmer in resentment at people deciding to not work thanks to the improved medical insurance. After all, a minute portion our taxes would be supporting their choices. On the other hand, if we consider that the law of supply and demand operates for us in the labor market, if there are fewer workers in the labor force, employers will be forced to pay us better.

So what do we want? Better pay, or to fight like cats and dogs among ourselves to make sure not one single penny of our taxes goes to someone else's pursuit of happiness?

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According to studies on health and diet, we all should be eating whole foods like fruits, vegetables, grains and healthy forms of protein. The only reason for junk food, it seems, is to make a more substantial profit.

Food scientists' ascension in recent years is in direct correlation to the obesity epidemic. Clever, quick and convenient foods have made it possible for people to come home from work and throw a frozen lasagna in the oven. We've become dependent on cheap, filler food, and we give short shrift to what we put in our bodies.

Reading the ingredients listed in boxed, canned and frozen foods is always a shocker. Sugar appears to be in everything! ("Sugar: It's our national obsession. And it's killing us," Science+Health, Feb. 16.) Kids at very young ages are easily hooked on sweets, and parents have to move mountains sometimes to get their kids to eat broccoli, spinach and other whole foods. Eating deliberately and purposefully, setting good examples for our children, will make us more aware of what we put in our mouths.

According to the article, too much sugar has ramifications beyond obesity and cavities. It effects everything from dementia to circulatory issues to cholesterol and inflammation. Something I will take to heart.

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Here is the conversion for you: By my research, one teaspoon equals 4.92892 grams.

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The article did little to inform readers. Rather, accompanied by an illustration of a skull and crossbones, it was clearly intended to scare them.

The reality is that adult consumption of added sugars has declined. Importantly, a significant part of the reduction is from decreased added sugars from beverages — due, in part, to our member companies' ongoing innovation in providing more low- and no-calorie options. A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also came to these conclusions, and showed that foods, not beverages, are the leading source of calories from added sugars in the diet of American adults, as well as that of children and adolescents.

Last, the research covered in the newspaper was an observational study that cannot — and does not — show that cardiovascular disease is caused by drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. Heart diseases are a complex set of problems with no single cause and no simple solution. Neither the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute nor the American Heart Association list sugar consumption as a risk factor for heart disease. While many risk factors are beyond our control, there are things we can do — including not smoking, maintaining an appropriate body weight and being physically active — to help mitigate risk for heart disease.

Regarding the excellent editorial "Is college worth it? Yes, more than ever" (Feb. 19): A key factor is that college graduates are "more satisfied in their jobs." Twenty years down the pike, this is worth more than the money!