NYC Bans Large Sugary Drinks

[Shwa Girl]

big sugary drinks are a way to down a lot of calories really fast. sometimes ppl don't really realize how much they are ingesting all at once.

I was so surprised when I went to the US and learned about breakfast Coke.
Can you imagine starting your day off with 64 ounces of Coke. What a caffeine high and a sugar rush, on an empty stomach!

[anisa]

breakfast coke? too funny.

[walkonby]

Anybody remember ParticipACTION. (Ontario)
Promoting physical fitness.
What ever happened to that?

ha ha , oh I do remember that! Say, did the whole video game craze start around the same time as ParticipAction??

[Shwa Girl]

ha ha , oh I do remember that! Say, did the whole video game craze start around the same time as ParticipAction??

walkonby, I can't blame video games.
Somebody buys the games for the kids.
Somebody makes the decision about what exercise and outdoor play time the kids gets.
Somebody makes the decision about keeping or ditching mandatory phys ed classes in schools.

[ninna]

Interesting.

I suppose we could ridicule them for targeting pop first, but I fall into the camp of, "at least they started with something!" Or, as Lao-tzu would say in a much more intelligent fashion, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

I might want to ridicule the "no more pop over X- size" rule, but, many people don't realize just how many empty calories they consume when they drink a pop. A medium coke (20 ounce glass) at Wendy's is 240 calories. For a girl like me, whose caloric intake for the day is around 1500, it wouldn't take very many cokes for me to reach my maximum. One of those 60 ounces guzzlers and, well, there goes my supper allowance. *shrugs*

Serious changes around the way we eat ARE needed...but it's needed across so many sectors that targeting fast food joints is but a teeny task in what needs to be a many pronged approach. Changing the way people think about food is another. We've become a society that lives to eat, rather than one that eats to live.

Changing the way the sneaky marketing s actually get us to eat more is a third. Ever notice how they get you at the fast food joint by making it a WAY better deal to buy the combo and up-size it than if you just bought, say, the burger. We are so desperate for VALUE, that we order the combos and make them large even though we don't need all that crap!

Changing the way we douse everything in high fructose corn syrup is a fourth! High fructose corn syrup is the bane of our existence. I believe it's cheaper for companies to use it than standard sugar, it makes everything taste sugary syrupy sweet and we once we become accustomed to the taste of it, well, we simply cannot fathom a pop with anything else. Gross. I had a pop the other day, drank a quarter of it and handed it to my husband because I couldn't stand the extreme sweetness of it. And that's from a girl with a sweet tooth who wouldn't turn away a lonely cheesecake if it came knocking on my door. Worse, this high fructose corn syrup is buried in many, many other food where it should not even be like breakfast cereals

I think it's a good thing because obviously we are unable to control ourselves, but I also think in addition to seriously questioning our habits as a society/culture, we should also be going after the big companies who make/sell these products or foods and the governments who enable the big companies by passing legislation to make it possible for them to do this to us...and make THEM accountable as well.

In a way, obesity is like the new smoking. I mean--we went after tobacco companies for the detriments on human health their products caused. Why not go after the pop people in the same way??? You could argue it's different because cigarettes are addictive and cancerous...but I'd wager my next pay cheque that sugar is ALSO addictive...and maybe it isn't cancerous, but the obesity-related illnesses that are caused by it come pretty darn close to cancer in terms of human health costs.

Just my two cents.

LOL...well, looks more like about 20 cents after how much I've written.

[Lynn49]

I could not agree more, Ninna. Terrific post!

[Shwa Girl]

In a way, obesity is like the new smoking. I mean--we went after tobacco companies for the detriments on human health their products caused. Why not go after the pop people in the same way??? You could argue it's different because cigarettes are addictive and cancerous...but I'd wager my next pay cheque that sugar is ALSO addictive...and maybe it isn't cancerous, but the obesity-related illnesses that are caused by it come pretty darn close to cancer in terms of human health costs.

Sad news.

They have already linked sugar to cancer. Colon cancer -- in some people. Excess sugar + obesity can lead to colon cancer is certain groups.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/...ds_a_Sugar_Fix

[anisa]

Even as hard as we try to control our selves, and we want to make healthy choices, it is darn hard to actually do.

there are sneaky ingredients in everything. like knorr and campbells on their low-salt campaign. less salt? wow! wtf, now there is MSG? errr...

and low fat products have such strange ingredients in them to make them seem richer. they look so gross and taste so gross.

if you are looking for real food with real ingredients, well you're SOL.

The federal govt's are doing a piss poor job of protecting us from money hungry mass producing corporations.

[RebeccaRYoung]

I think this is a great law. Sometimes enjoying a sugary beverage is a nice treat, but drinking so much can be unhealthy. I don't even understand why they sold such large beverages anyway. If people thought about a 2000 calorie diet, that drink is all the calories for the day! If you add in popcorn or candy, that's more than the calories for the day!

[Patty Smyth]

If you think that large corps . are just innocently pushing their products go to any litigation site and see how many lawsuits are out there against all these false claims and outright lying they do to push their products. It's scary.

[anisa]

i think one of the bigger crimes is companies being able to market juice as a serving of fruit or veggies.

so wrong in so many ways

[Patty Smyth]

Well in the u.s. they got pizza classified as a veggie(tomato sauce) so they could keep it in school cafeterias

[snuffaluffagus]

The federal govt's are doing a piss poor job of protecting us from money hungry mass producing corporations.

The gov't collects taxes from the sale of these products. As with cigarette smoking, once the costs of health care related to consumption surpass the income generated via taxes from sales, maybe then the gov't will step in. Until then, the $ is more important than our health.

[anisa]

also, who knows how much schmoozing goes on beyond the public eye. i'm sure they all have hands in each others' pockets. all the secret winks and nods that make sure that situations exist to keep the cycle going and make everyone richer... everyone except us of course!

[DaveP]

Well in the u.s. they got pizza classified as a veggie(tomato sauce) so they could keep it in school cafeterias

I'm afraid I have to disagree. Pizza is pretty much the perfect food. All 4 food groups represented, nutrient and calorie rich, what could be better for you? Sure if you overdo it, it will have have negative consequences, but that's true of anything - even water.

Tell me, what food would be better gram for gram for a starving person than a piece of pizza? Really, name one food. No single food can provide the calories, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins that a single slice of pizza can. Not one other food can provide it all.