Posted on 07/25/2012 8:54:09 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
NEW YORK (AP) Medical professionals who favor a proposed ban on large-sized sugary drinks likened soda companies to Big Tobacco at a public hearing Tuesday, saying the plan would protect the public, while opponents accused the city of playing Big Brother and wondered what tasty but unhealthy foods might be targeted next.
New York City's health board heard hours of testimony on a proposed rule that would limit soft-drink cup and bottle sizes at food service establishments to no larger than 16 ounces.
Medical experts spared no rhetoric in hailing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal as a way to protect the public from a soft-drink industry they said pushes carbonated calories on children and employs the same well-financed lobbying tactics as Big Tobacco.
One doctor said before the hearing that the calorie-packed beverages increase the risk of diabetes, and are responsible for a big share of the "massive suffering and premature death" linked to obesity.
"Soda in large amounts is metabolically toxic," said Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. "It's obvious that this is the right thing to do."
A 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola has roughly the same calorie count as a McDonald's hamburger, but Kelly Brownell, a psychology, epidemiology and public health professor at Yale University, said it is easier to over-drink than over-eat.
"You don't feel as full when you consume calories in liquids," he said. "These beverages are the single greatest source of added sugar in the American diet."
Critics ridiculed the idea that city officials should regulate portion sizes.
City Councilman Daniel Halloran III called the proposal a "feel-good placebo" that would hurt profit margins at small businesses while failing to improve anyone's health.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Nanny State PING!
Oh BTW, nanny lovers need to remember that when you go after one group eventually it will come around to you....First it was smokers....now it is soda drinkers and tonight I heard on Fox News that Bloomy is going after alcoholic beverages.....who is next after that? I don’t think anybody is safe. Safe to see America going down this road.
There is no “pro” argument for this ban. IT’S NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT’S FLIPPIN BUSINESS!
Bingo!
Don’t you mean SAD to see America going down this road?
Why not just raise taxes on all food and reduce the consumption to make people skinny? We could go back to food rationing like WWII. It works in Europe..food is so expensive that people are skinny,,plus they must walk more because the poor don’t have cars. Then increase the cost of energy so that people are colder in winter and burn more calories..like Europe.
If all that doesn’t work..eliminate food stamps because the poor are the ones who tend to be fatter anyway. Eliminate free school lunch..because the kids who get them are fat. I could go on.
These idiotic, arbitrarily authoritarian social engineers are un-American at their core, and they don't even realize it. However well-meaning they may be, they have become blinded by their own arrogance and conceit.
This nanny-state mentality must be rebuked wherever and whenever it appears, and its enablers repudiated as the anti-patriotic petty Tyrants that they are...
We’re fixing to get a dose of that.
Soured corn for hunting deer has gone from $4 a sack to $10 a sack in just a few months.
That’s the stuff we toss on the ground for critters.
Beef is down at the moment because ranchers are selling off their herds as they cant afford to feed them
Big Brother, looking out for you, whether you like it or not.
Thanks for the ping!
They are coming for your donuts and cookies.
They will outlaw Cinnabons and close all of them down.
They will outlaw candy shops.
They will outlaw Vente Frappacinos.
They will outlaw 1/2 pound burritos.
They will outlaw double cheeseburgers.
They will outlaw large fries.
They will outlaw onion rings.
They will outlaw fried chicken and gravy.
They will outlaw dumplings.
They will outlaw pancake houses.
They will outlaw 5 pound boxes of sugar.
They will outlaw extra value meals.
They will prohibit “double sizing” any meal.
They will outlaw chocolate fudge everything.
They will outlaw chocolate covered macadamia nuts.
They will outlaw chocolate shakes and malts.
They will outlaw bacon.
It’s for your own good.
Submit.
Resistance is Futile.
You shall be assimilated.
No different from banning beer! Any argument to the contrary is sophistry.
I am the conservative who dares to ask: Why does no one want to outlaw tofu?!!!
Especially FRIED tofu!
:>)
You can choose to murder a baby in the womb, but you can’t choose the size of the soda you want to drink.
“Big Brother” in this case being physically a runt!
AGREED!!!
Bloom,berg WANTS you to kill the baby, but not to kill the drink!
Tofu kills.
People who like it are already dead.
“They will outlaw chocolate fudge everything.”
Fudge packing causes AIDS which is a costly and often deadly disease. Think of all the lives they could save if they outlawed that.
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