"On a more serious note, the food industry has an immense amount of power in Washington and I think change in just a few years is highly optimistic,"

For sure. This is an industry that arranged so that they can sue you if you diss them.

http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2009/11/burger-... http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q2/eat.html

I agree, but Washington isn't the only game in town. These socioeconomic/medical issues are costing European governments plenty too, and it would suit them just fine to denounce high-fructose corn syrup as an American imposition as a sop to their domestic farming lobbies (even though European food scientists are just as concerned with maximizing saleable weight at minimum cost as their counterparts here).

It may not take all that long: consider the history of tobacco litigation (also a powerful lobby) and the fact that federal and particularly state finances are in a tight squeeze, in which soaring medical costs play a significant part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Master_Settlement_Agree...

Countries with first-world (i.e. universal) healthcare systems tend to be a lot more proactive in regulating their food supply and environment than we are, because they view health problems as a common cost, whereas we view them as an individual cost.

This is one of many positive side effects of universal healthcare.