Mayor Bloomberg Is Right to Declare a War on Sugar

The Daily Beast ^ | June 2, 2012 | Michael Tomasky

[CharlesThe Hammer]

There’s only one way to say something like this, and it’s loud and proud and without apology: I wholeheartedly support Mike Bloomberg’s war on sugar. It’s unassailable as policy. Refined sugar is without question the worst foodstuff in the world for human health, and high-fructose corn syrup is little better. We are a fat country getting fatter and fatter, and these mountains of refined sugar that people ingest are a big part of the reason. The costs to the health-care system are enormous, so the public interest here is ridiculously obvious. Obesity is a killer. Are we to do nothing, in the name of the “liberty” that entitles millions of people to kill themselves however they please, whatever their diabetes treatments costs their insurers? We have this “liberty” business completely backward in this country, and if Bloomberg can start rebalancing individual freedom and the public good, God bless him, I say.

[ex91B10]

"The costs to the health-care system are enormous, so the public interest here is ridiculously obvious."

This is the sole reason that any gov't run health care system MUST not be allowed to take hold.

First, your diet is at their mercy; next will be your hobbies: like to skydive? Sorry, the "costs to the health-care system are enormous"; Like to rock climb? Sorry, "the costs to the health-care system are enormous"; Want to have a child? Must do a pre-natal DNA screen to insure the child will be "normal". If the child has Downs or a genetic predisposition for say, Parkinsons, "the costs to the health-care system are enormous". Like being a couch spud? Sorry, gov't now mandates two hours a day at a gov't run health club because, after all, if you allowed to expand at the waist a bit, "the costs to the health-care system are enormous"

Control the health care industry, and you can control the population.

[maxwellsmart_agent]

We are a free country. If we are to remain that way, people like Bloomberg must shut up.

If a person wants a 40 oz. drink, they should be able to order it.

Bloomberg is a clown, and in order to maintain his status, he must come up with goofball stuff like this every few months. He will be gone soon. But that will not stop his crazy schemes.

[samtheman]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399201/

In the movie The Island, people were kept as replacement parts and given a strictly controlled diet to keep them healthy.

[SpaceBar]

The two main reasons why health care costs have gone through the roof in the last four decades is government intervention, and the out of control legal industry. Medicine, as a profession, has been villified due to the blurry lines between doctors, lawyers, insurance companies, and the government. One big amorphous blob of regulations, red tape, liabilities, and hoop jumping... when all you wanted was a broken bone set and a bottle of pills. And now politicians and lawyers are saying more government involvement and lawyers will solve the problem. Nice little Hegelian dialectic they’ve set up.

[Pharmboy]

If Bloomnerd and the other nanny staters that are so concerned about obesity and health REALLY want to do something good (while leaving us folk alone), go to the American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, the American Medical Association, etc., and have them stop pushing any and all sorts of carbohydrates on us as a better alternative to modest fat in our diets (protein is the constant). Sheesh...

[SpaceBar]

Bloomberg is totally wrong. Americans didn’t bleed out on the beaches of Normandy so this little tin-pot dictator could decide by decree what is an appropriate sized beverage.

[tflabo]

Scrooge them tyrants to hades.
Its none of their business who eats what. I had 2 donuts this AM and my weight is normal and if I was obese that’s on me and not the nanny govt.

[Lazamataz]

Michael Tomasky is well-known and a self-admitted 'progressive', so of course he would support yet another tyrannical power grab.

I really hope I get a chance for some payback on these bitches.

[tflabo]

Sugar and carbs bad for health. Gay sex and same-sex marriage is good for health. The new modern and govt approved ‘Thinkspeech’.

[Yorlik803]

Its good to see that NYC has been able to solve all their major problem. Now they can work on smaller problem like this.
Bloomberg and his ilk just crave control. They enjoy abusing power and flexing their muscles.
WOrse than Nazis...at least the Nazi Government allowed simple pleasures.....

[SaintDismas]

I agree with you. I just lament that people can take something to nominally be true and then make themselves a hero by their caring so much. Gag. They care not. I can’t even imagine being in this “caring” mans family. I think I’d rather be w/o a friend in the whoe wide world than be a “beneficiary” of his compassion

[Irenic]

Microwaves, cable TV, computers, video games, PE in school isn’t what it once was— if it is even required.

Many people don’t know how to cook anymore. There are some, that if you gave them a whole chicken and a bag of beans they would stare blankly and probably starve.

Heck, when they take kids lunches away, what to they give—chicken nuggets. Food pantries hand out chicken nuggets, too. Microwavable food is about the extent of cooking knowledge for many and processed food is always much more fattening.

As a kid cartoons were on Saturday mornings. I think there were some cartoons on channels 26 and 39— from about 3pm to maybe 5pm— those were only for rainy days, we would rather be out playing. Sundays there was the Wonderful World of Disney or the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom. With cable there are cartoons 24-7.

I think PE needs to make a good comeback and the same with home economics, where if you don’t know how to cook or sew...you learn how.

[BwanaNdege]

“HFCS is FAR worse than refined sugar.”

Then don’t eat any.

Just leave the rest of us alone.

[BwanaNdege]

It would be interesting to see ethnic demographics for those states.

Do they have the obesity statistics factored by ethnicity, age or income?

[HereInTheHeartland]

Yes; we fought a war for our independence and established a free nation, so cities could outlaw sugary drinks. Sigh....

[cva66snipe]

The only "WAR" government is authorized to declare in the Constitution of the United States is war on an enemy nation. All other government "WARS" on other matters especially related to helping "we the people" have brought upon us great tyranny and grief.

Hey Liberals. You want something to do? Okey then follow this one piece of advice of your beloved late Marxist Liberal Marcuse and "make love not war". You remember that saying don't ya? Here's it right back at ya. Do anything so long as you stay out of our lives you Nanny State Idiots.

[A'elian' nation]

Yup that’s where the place is. A guy really did have a heart attack there recently.

Here is a picture of one of those heart stoppers:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/another-heart-attack-grill-customer-collapses-while-eating-191647836.html

The owner says he has eaten at least one of these burgers every day since it opened 7yrs ago. I just can’t imagine it.