All the huff over Fluff

State Senator Jarrett Barrios sounded a bit weary yesterday on the subject of Fluffernutters. I'd called him to ask what he thought would be the next chapter in the battle over Marshmallow Fluff.

``I don't think there's going to be a next chapter," he said, sounding a little glum. He seemed ready for the whole thing to go away.

When one of his children was served a sandwich of peanut butter and Fluff at his Cambridge elementary school, Barrios kicked off a fuss that would have to be considered bizarre even by State House standards. He filed legislation to limit how often school cafeterias could serve Fluff to student-customers. Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein of Revere responded with a bill that would make the Fluffernutter the official state sandwich.

Now, this happens to be an election year, and at such times the Legislature tends to shy away from any controversy that could rouse a drowsy public. Even so, this qualifies as a particularly soft issue. While the candidates for governor try to persuade people that the state is facing major issues, lawmakers have zeroed in on the real crisis threatening our Commonwealth: Fluff.

This is not to make light of school nutrition. Vending machines have been under fire for years -- and rightly so. Report after report warns of the epidemic of obesity among young people, a public health problem attributed to various villains including poor diet, too little exercise, and video game addiction. The rise in what was once known as adult-onset diabetes is truly unfunny.

Barrios spoke of the Fluff issue in terms of health disparities, saying that poor nutrition is especially a danger for low-income youth. There is a germ of an issue here.

Then again, that issue has to be weighed against Barrios's penchant for filing attention-getting legislation, much of which never reaches a vote.

His name can be found, for example, on a bill to require cellphone companies to issue maps that depict for customers where their phones will actually work. It is on a bill to create a buffer zone around abortion clinics. It is on a bill that seeks to force companies to disclose to customers when their financial or medical information has been lost or stolen. And -- this one actually came to a vote, and passed -- it is on a bill that gives district attorneys more tools to protect witnesses.

There is nothing wrong in being a legislator who likes to legislate, but Barrios seems to have a gift for grabbing headlines. He sets a high standard for self-promotion, even when his ideas go awry. Reinstein fumed that it was ridiculous to be discussing Fluff, yet there she was discussing it.

Barrios didn't seem optimistic about the future of the Fluff cap. But he was unrepentant about raising the issue. The senator said he was trying to spark an important conversation, and he staunchly maintained that schools are not doing enough to provide nutritious meals.

``I see the humor in Fluff," he said. ``I've had a pretty good laugh myself. My issue is what we're giving young people and whether we can do better. For a lot of these kids, especially poor kids, what we give them in school will be the most nutritious meal of the day."

Barrios said he doesn't think his amendment is going to see a vote in the near future. It won't, and neither will Reinstein's. But if he wanted to spark a discussion, he succeeded, though a lot of it seems to be centered on how silly it would be to ban something children like to eat.

Frankly, few people besides Barrios seem all that worried about Marshmallow Fluff overload. The senator appeared resigned to the notion that his idea didn't seem to be catching on.

Some will contend that the Fluff wars have been diverting attention from weightier matters.

But if you think legislators should have more important issues to consider, I can assure you that equally pointless debates take place on Beacon Hill on a regular basis.

In political terms, it's just one more meal full of empty calories.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.