Posted on 09/17/2009 5:01:08 PM PDT by Baladas
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California lawmaker who spearheaded a high-profile anti-obesity effort across the country's most populous state is now training his sights on sugar-sweetened drinks.
Sen. Alex Padilla, who led a campaign requiring big restaurant chains to disclose calories in meals, said on Thursday he planned to hold hearings in November on the link between soda consumption and obesity.
The announcement from Padilla -- who chairs the California Senate's Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes -- coincides with the release of a study that shows nearly two-thirds of children aged 12 to 17 gulp down at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily.
According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, 62 percent of children aged 12 to 17, and 41 percent of children aged 2 to 11, drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
CA hasn’t met a tax it didn’t like. This state is filled with goofy tax crazed politicians. And, they are broke and can’t figure out how to reduce spending.
So his claim to fame is having restaurants publish the calories of meals.
Like it’s too damn hard for individuals to figure out, “Hmmm, you know that chicken fried steak just may have a few more calories than the salad.”
I guess the people who drink sodas will learn the pain that tobacco smokers now bear.
Hey, lets not stand in the way of personal freedom! /s
The Constitution as living and breathing as it is, states that lawmakers will DICTATE what personal freedoms can be sought after all.
How about they establish a link between retarded schools producing retarded people with little to no impulse control, unable to make sound decisions for themselves or their health?
Oh, it's a "Select" committee, so it's OK... /s
OMG! Next thing CA will tell me is the air makes me fat. Or retain water. Or something else.
Well, cigarettes and alcohol have pretty much been taken and abused by other politicians so give him a break.
After all he is just doing the work of the people in a free society right?
Think big.....CO2 via breathing...
Ah, but isn’t corn syrup used to sweeten sodas and won’t he run afoul of the corn lobby if he interferes with their profits????
So good to know that they’re solving the really insidious problems this country faces. Everything else is just so insignificant.
CO2. Global warming through breathing.
Sounds like a new commercial, like the better living through chemistry.
California has money to spend on idiotic hearings?
As a Californian I second that.
Why don’t they see the link between obesity and dumbing down or elimination of PE classes?
Television commercial fodder!
NO but China does and the retailer in Washington D.C. has the printing presses to make it happen.
Yeah, you know ... the new seasons reality show!
Sounds like our communist BIG government is going for a hostile takeover of Pepsi and Coke. Somebody needs to go to jail. This kind of bullsh*t is not what the government is supposed to be doing.
The basic reason people get fat is that they take in more calories than their metabolism can use. Exercise and moderation is a capital remedy for obesity. There is no need for studies and hearings to discover that.
Absolutely true. I know that because its my line of work.
I remember when Soda Jerk used to apply to the guy behind the counter. Now it applies to the idiot politician trying to come up with another tax scheme.
Co2 is chemistry. Right.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. Sometimes the actions of various states tickles me as much as various people.
I want to see a study on the link between welfare and obesity.
A) Soak the taxpayer, use the money to prop sugar price supports, and lower the price of corn to make ultra-cheap high fructose corn syrup.
B) These taxpayer-funded cheap ingredients then induce obesity, diabetes, heart-disease, Alzheimer’s and a host of other diseases, and rocket up our health care costs.
C) Congress soaks the taxpayers again for consuming these addictive ingredients, and uses the money to partly pay for their ill health.
hmm...
I wonder if these hearings might look at the root cause (A). I won’t hold my breath waiting for it.
“California has money to spend on idiotic hearings?”
And how about that $43,000,000 children’s museum (at least $10 mill is taxpayer money), which has filed for bankruptcy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Padilla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Museum_of_Los_Angeles
Unfinished Million Dollar Children’s Museum Files for Bankruptcy
Sun 19 Apr 2009 12:06
LOS ANGELES— An unfinished children’s museum in the San Fernando Valley has filed for bankruptcy after a major donor accused of investor fraud reneged on his pledge.
The Children’s Museum of Los Angeles filed for bankruptcy Friday. The project in Lake View Terrace needed another $22 million to open its doors but was plagued with staff turnover and fundraising woes.
Sherman Oaks investor Bruce Friedman had pledged $10 million. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit last month accusing him of stealing $17 million from investors and a judge froze his company assets.
Los Angeles invested more than $10 million into the museum. The City Council will hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss taking over the property.
This is nuts. We have an unemployment CRISIS in America and all these morons can do is obfuscate!
People need Jobs now!
Wait until the State of California finds out people exhale CO2
I don’t care if sodas increase our average weight to 250 lbs, the government has no right to tax food or any other item, including tobacco, in order to limit its use. They can ban it but not tax it. The tobacco tax is illegal but our government just doesn’t give a sh** anymore what we want or what the constitution says.
Research Links Food Stamps and Obesity
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75131,00.html
http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/June08/Features/FoodStampsObesity.htm
I am sure that the stress of being taxed to death by these baffoons is shortening my lifespan and ruining my health. When are they going to investigate that?
Go get ‘em Senator Padilla!
Your state is broke, your hospitals have the economic viability of a liquor store in Amish country, and yours is the first state to experience state-wide white flight - a phenomenon heretofore only seen in cities.
Clearly the root of all this evil is...the soft drink industry.
And how about the 850 calorie salad? Sometimes those little candied walnuts can really leave a mark.
I’m not at all opposed for caloric information to be included in meals. It’s no tax other than requiring that restaurants produce new menues, which is done regularly, anyway.
Perfectly fine with me. Just don't touch my Vernor's. / s
I recently had dinner on the Wharf in SFO. There was a $3.50 "Health Tax" on the bill.
What the hell is that?
RETARD ASSEMBLYMAN—Your state is burning, the farmers have no water, you are out of money, and you are worried about kids drinking SODA?????? You deserve what you get.
how about genetics? aren’t african americans fatter than whites, asians? I want to see the statistics broken down by ethnicity!
That’s kinda the point. That’s WHY California is broke. Too many leftist idiots. But we knew that.
Coming soon to a state near you, no doubt.
You’re not allowed to ask what it was or what it’s for. Just pay it and smile. Or you will be on report.
“too much focus on high-calorie intake and not enough – or any – on teaching healthy eating habits.” - Not enough teaching of ANY kind.
Thanks for the post.
Bio Fuel.
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