nycgov:

Lucky’s Restaurant on East 34^th Street recognizes the health impacts of sugary beverages and voluntarily decided to limit the size of those beverages.

Sugary drinks are a leading contributor to the obesity epidemic that kills more than 5,000 New Yorkers each year.

Yesterday, the City…

I know there are many people who feel government should stay out of their business.  But the government by the people is also for the people and sometimes people don’t know what’s good for them.  I do hope the ban will go into effect eventually because problems/diseases related to obesity effect us all. So for those who don’t just care that people should be healthy and with good health comes a better chance of happiness, but they do care if they’re personally affected (especially in the wallet).  Well, the costs of obesity-related health problems are often borne by the tax payer.  Most of the problems hit those in the lower socioeconomic levels but are paid for by all. 

So, some say, a parent should teach their kids what good food is.  But guess what?  So many parents aren’t properly informed.  I was in a Walmart recently and walking down their “food” aisles I was shocked and horrified to see that there wasn’t actually much food.  It was mostly junk.  Processed crap that pretends to be food.  But there were many people there filling their carts with this “food” and this is their main shopping.  Another recent trip into a Stop & Shop supermarket in an area of CT that has many more lower income residents.  It was not the same as the Stop & Shop closer to my home.  It had fewer selections of most foods except the junk foods. The “sparkling beverage” aisle had 99% soda and one store brand of seltzer.  No sparkling water. There were no organic foods either.  The flours I could choose from were wheat or corn.  Yet they had a huge Easter candy and decoration area.  So, the people who shop at these stores don’t get the options of healthier foods.  They get aisle after aisle of more junk (not only, but much, much more).  

Now, some say I can control how much I will eat/drink.  But study (this is a soda & obesity link study) after study shows that we cannot control how much we eat.  That we eat more than we think.  If the food/drink is there we will eat/drink it. Haven’t you been to a buffet and left feeling really full?  ”Oh, I don’t know why I ate so much!”  Because it was there.  Larger portions equal larger amounts eaten.  Larger sodas equal larger quantities drunk.

And since when is any amount of soda good for anyone?

Read Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink and you might be on the same side of the issue too.