Why does it have to be all about obesity?

This post (from a blog I actually like and don’t mean to put down!) quite correctly criticizes Coke for pretending to take action against obesity while actually contributing to it. No surprises there. It’s a story to work up any anti-corporate activist into a seething ball of righteous indignation, and I’m glad someone is covering it.

But the post did make me think: is it possible that, in focusing so heavily on obesity specifically, we’re crippling our own arguments? After all, Coke can always show up with the perfectly legitimate studies showing that sugar water is no more obesogenic than any other food with the same number of calories, and defend themselves with all the familiar language about “moderation” and “portion control.”