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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2006 The Columbia River Bar Pilots have been authorized to replace the pilot boat Columbia with a new boat called the Chinook II at a cost of roughly $4.2 million. The cost will be covered by raising the surcharge to vessels traveling on the Columbia River over the next 10 years. The bar pilots hope to have the new boat up and running by next winter, but they don’t know yet what will become of the Columbia pilot boat once the Chinook II is built. More than a dozen concerned citizens – longshoremen and liquefied natural gas opponents alike – took turns identifying problems at the Port of Astoria during the Port Commission meeting Tuesday night. Some aimed pointed questions at commissioners and Execu- tive Director Peter Gearin; others called for resignations during a lengthy public comment session. In response, Port leadership shared new information about ongoing controversies and admitted the agency needs to do some major repairs to its dredge. President Don McDaniel said he would consider easing restrictions built into the Port’s recently adopted public comment policy to ensure freedom of speech. The storm that surprised the Portland area with a heavy blanket of snow Tuesday mostly bypassed the North Coast, but did bring more below freez- ing temperatures and some freezing rain Tuesday night that made for slip- pery driving conditions locally this morning. A forgotten Cold War-era defense siren set off by a prank- ster at Oregon State University to herald the new year is coming to Clatsop County to serve as a tsunami alert. Its likely destina- tion is Hammond, Gene Strong, the county’s emergency services coordinator, said today. 50 years ago — 1966 This architect’s sketch shows the new headquarters building for Ilwaco’s wide-spreading collection telephone companies, to be built in 1967. Try going a month without any sugar By DAVID LEONHARDT New York Times News Service t is in chicken stock, sliced cheese, bacon and smoked salmon, in mustard and salad dressing, in crackers and nearly every single brand of sandwich bread. It is all around us — in obvious ways and hidden ones — and it is utterly delicious. It’s sugar, in its many forms: powdered sugar, honey, corn syrup, you name it. The kind you eat mat- ters less than people once thought, scientific research suggests, and the amount matters much more. Our national sugar habit is the driv- ing force behind the diabetes and obesity epidemics and may be a contributing factor to cancer and Alzheimer’s. Like me, you’ve probably just finished a couple of weeks in which you have eaten a lot of tasty sugar. Don’t feel too guilty about it. But if you feel a little guilty about it, I’d like to make a suggestion. Choose a month this year — a full 30 days, starting now or later — and commit to eating no added sweeteners. Go cold turkey, for one month. I Tony Cenicola/The New York Times The year 1966 was a great one for this lower Columbia area, economi- cally and otherwise. It was in fact one of the best years in our history. One major event that made 1966 a landmark year was completion of the Astoria bridge and its opening to traffic. The social and economic impact of this great event is yet to be measure, but a few months have already tied us closer to the communities of southwest Washington, have developed tourist travel greatly, and affected this area beneficially from the economic standpoint. The bridge’s completion undoubtedly is one of the major events in the history of this area. The year in which it was finished has to be a signifi- cant one. Four persons were rescued from a sinking tri-maran pleasure craft Saturday night near the tip of the south jetty. The Colum- bia River Bar Pilots association pilot boat Peacock made the res- cue at about 11 p.m. in “pretty rough” sea between buoys 4 and 6, Capt. E.A. Quinn of the bar pilots said. Fifty years ago: From Evening Budget, Jan. 2, 1917 The 1916 automobile business here had set new records. Eight dealers had sold a total 377 automobiles. Lovell Auto was the leader, selling 210 Fords, Overland, Reliances and Mack trucks. Tongue Point Job Corps Center will be converted from a train- ing school for boys and young men to a school for 800 girls and young women, the change to be completed by the end of June. 75 years ago — 1941 America welcomes 1942 tonight with whoopee parties sobered by grim reminders that the nation is at war. In many cities the lid was off for a celebration that “may be the last big New Year’s for some time.” But air raid wardens will mingle with the throngs in new York’s Times Square, where the New Year traditionally received its most uproarious greet- ing at the stroke of midnight. And three hours later when 1942 reaches the west coast, it will find lights dimmed and gaiety muffled lest the cities serve as landmarks for enemy bombers. Bringing home to everyone what dislocations to normal life are involved in an all-out war effort is the government order prac- tically suspending the automobile industry, one of the nation’s largest, as it prepared to put all automobile factories into full- time production of aircraft, tanks and other machinery of war. The government emergency order banning sale, delivery or lease of all new cars and light trucks until a rationing system is instituted January 15, has come as a sharp blow to nine Astoria automobile dealers at it has to 40,000 dealers throughout the nation. Today there are about 100 new cars owned by local dealers, all of which are frozen by government proclamation. Thus far at least 13 persons have been left unemployed by the curtailment, with more unemployment almost certain in the immediate future. Not easy I have done so in each of the past two years, and it has led to permanent changes in my eating habits. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. It reset my sugar-addled taste buds and opened my eyes to the many products that needlessly contain sugar. I now know which brands of chicken stock, bacon, smoked salmon, mustard and hot sauce contain added sugar and which do not. I know that Triscuits and pita bread are our friends. They have only a few ingredients, and no sugar. Wheat Thins and most pack- aged sandwich breads, on the other hand, have an ingredient list that evokes high school chemistry class, including added sugars. If you give up sugar for a month, you’ll become part of a growing anti-sugar movement. Research increasingly indicates that an overabundance of simple carbohydrates, and sugar in partic- ular, is the No. 1 problem in mod- ern diets. An aggressive, well-fi- nanced campaign by the sugar industry masked this reality for years. Big Sugar instead placed the blame on fats — which seem, after all, as if they should cause obesity. But fats tend to have more nutri- tional value than sugar, and sugar is far easier to overeat. Put it this way: Would you find it easier to eat two steaks or two pieces of cake? Food taxes Fortunately, the growing under- standing of sugar’s dangers has led to a backlash, both in politics and in our diets. Taxes on sweetened drinks — and soda is probably the most efficient delivery system for sugar — have recently passed in Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, San Francisco and Boulder, Colo- rado. Mexico and France have one as well, and Ireland and Britain soon will. Even before the taxes, Ameri- cans were cutting back on sugar. Since 1999, per capita consump- A sampling of foods and the total grams of sugar in one serving. Our national sugar habit is the driving force behind the diabetes and obesity epidemics and may be a contributing factor to cancer and Alzheimer’s, David Leonhardt writes. tion of added sweeteners has fallen about 14 percent, according to the Agriculture Department. Yet it needs to drop a lot more — another 40 percent or so — to return to a healthy level. “Most public authorities think every- body would be healthier eating less sugar,” says Marion Nestle of NYU. “There is tons of evidence.” A good long-term limit for most adults is no more than 50 grams (or about 12 teaspoons) of added sugars per day, and closer to 25 is healthier. A single 16-ounce bottle of Coke has 52 grams. You don’t have to cut out sugar for a month to eat less of it, of course. But it can be difficult to reduce your consumption in scat- tered little ways. You can usually find an excuse to say yes to the plate of cookies at a friend’s house or the candy jar during a meeting. Eliminating added sugar gives you a new baseline and forces you to make changes. Once you do, you’ll probably decide to keep some of your new habits. My breakfasts, for example, have completely changed. Over the past few decades, typical breakfasts in this country have become “low- er-fat versions of dessert,” as Gary Taubes, author of a new book, “The Case Against Sugar,” puts it. Mine used to revolve around cereal and granola, which are almost always sweetened. Now I eat a combination of eggs, nuts, fruit, plain yogurt and some well- spiced vegetables. It feels deca- dent, yet it’s actually healthier than a big bowl of granola. Defining sugar How should you define sugar during your month? I recommend the definition used by Whole 30, a popular food regimen (which elim- inates many things in addition to sugar). The sugar that occurs natu- rally in fruit, vegetables and dairy is allowed. “Nobody eats too much of those,” Nestle says, “not with the fiber and vitamins and minerals they have.” But every single added sweet- ener is verboten. No sugar, no corn syrup, no maple syrup, no honey, no fancy-pants agave. Read every ingredient list, looking especially for words that end in “-ose.” Don’t trust the Nutrition Facts table next to the ingredient list, because “0 g” of sugar on that list really means “less than 0.5 g.” Get comfortable asking questions in restaurants. And avoid the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas, too. Part of the goal, remember, is to relearn how a diet that isn’t dom- inated by sweeteners tastes. I’ve always liked fruit, but I was still pleasantly surprised by how deli- cious it was during the month. When I needed a midday treat, a Honeycrisp apple, a few Trader Joe’s apricots or a snack bar that fit the no-sugar requirement saved me. Finally, be careful not to vio- late the spirit of the month while sticking to the formal rules: Have only one small glass of juice a day, and eat very little with added fruit juices. There were certainly times when I didn’t enjoy the experi- ence. I missed ice cream, chocolate squares, Chinese restaurants and cocktails. But I also knew that I’d get to enjoy them all again. The unpleasant parts of a month without sugar are temporary, and they’re tolerable. Some of the ben- efits continue long after the month is over. If you try it and your expe- rience is anything like mine, I pre- dict that your new normal will feel healthier and no less enjoyable than the old.