NYC Board of Health passes big-soda crackdown rule


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Regardless of a supposed obesity epidemic, this is still ridiculous.

It's not a "supposed" obesity epidemic - it exists and is readily observable. In the US more than 68% of people are overweight and more than 35% are obese - it is predicted that the percentage of people that are obese will increase to 42% by 2030. Those numbers should be shocking to any civilised society and yet very little is being done about it. In many ways it is very similar to people's reaction to climate change in that people (mostly) recognise that it's a serious problem but oppose any action being taken to address it.

Doing nothing isn't an option. You can tout personal freedoms and blame individuals but when the vast majority of the country is overweight the reality is that something is going wrong on a massive scale. The food available for sale today just isn't healthy. Do I think this move is ideal? Absolutely not. But it's better than doing nothing. The food industry should be heavily regulated and foods with high calorie contents should be heavily taxed or banned. That's what happens with tobacco, so it's far from unprecedented.

If you oppose change and don't offer any solutions then you're part of the problem. Obstructing those trying to address the obesity epidemic isn't helpful.

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It's not a "supposed" obesity epidemic - it exists and is readily observable. In the US more than 68% of people are overweight and more than 35% are obese - it is predicted that the percentage of people that are obese will increase to 42% by 2030. Those numbers should be shocking to any civilised society and yet very little is being done about it. In many ways it is very similar to people's reaction to climate change in that people (mostly) recognise that it's a serious problem but oppose any action being taken to address it.

Doing nothing isn't an option. You can tout personal freedoms and blame individuals but when the vast majority of the country is overweight the reality is that something is going wrong on a massive scale. The food available for sale today just isn't healthy. Do I think this move is ideal? Absolutely not. But it's better than doing nothing. The food industry should be heavily regulated and foods with high calorie contents should be heavily taxed or banned. That's what happens with tobacco, so it's far from unprecedented.

If you oppose change and don't offer any solutions then you're part of the problem. Obstructing those trying to address the obesity epidemic isn't helpful.

Id take issue with the claim that " The food available for sale today just isn't healthy" as it reeks of the naturalistic fallacy. You could replace coke with all natural apple juice it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference in terms of caloric count.

The issue is not the food its the massive quantity's its available in combined with a less active lifestyle. So i take issue with " The food available for sale today just isn't healthy" in case we waste time on a non-solution.

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Id take issue with the claim that " The food available for sale today just isn't healthy" as it reeks of the naturalistic fallacy. You could replace coke with all natural apple juice it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference in terms of caloric count.

Apple juice doesn't have added caffeine to make it addictive.

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Apple juice doesn't have added caffeine to make it addictive.

True caffeine can create physical dependence

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Regardless of a supposed obesity epidemic, this is still ridiculous. I don't see how they are even allowed to do something like this legally. The government needs to back the hell off. If we want to get fat, let us. It's not their right to control how much food we eat, nor how much we drink.

Well your tone might change when you receive the medical bill.

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yeah and what about the people that get all kinda fatty mcdonalds and BK food (a whole bag full) and scarf down cheetos and wait for it...... wait for it.....

order a

DIET SODA!!!!

I'm like WTF????

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yeah and what about the people that get all kinda fatty mcdonalds and BK food (a whole bag full) and scarf down cheetos and wait for it...... wait for it.....

order a

DIET SODA!!!!

I'm like WTF????

They just shaved off 300+ calories off their meal, It all adds up

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It's not a "supposed" obesity epidemic - it exists and is readily observable. In the US more than 68% of people are overweight and more than 35% are obese - it is predicted that the percentage of people that are obese will increase to 42% by 2030. Those numbers should be shocking to any civilised society and yet very little is being done about it. In many ways it is very similar to people's reaction to climate change in that people (mostly) recognise that it's a serious problem but oppose any action being taken to address it.

Doing nothing isn't an option. You can tout personal freedoms and blame individuals but when the vast majority of the country is overweight the reality is that something is going wrong on a massive scale. The food available for sale today just isn't healthy. Do I think this move is ideal? Absolutely not. But it's better than doing nothing. The food industry should be heavily regulated and foods with high calorie contents should be heavily taxed or banned. That's what happens with tobacco, so it's far from unprecedented.

If you oppose change and don't offer any solutions then you're part of the problem. Obstructing those trying to address the obesity epidemic isn't helpful.

It is a "supposed" epidemic. Did you know that the scale, BMI, was devised in 1830? Most people, probably even yourself, would be considered overweight by that scale. The issue isn't the people when it comes to the rising numbers. It's the fact that the scale used to classify people is old and outdated.

Doing nothing is an option, because there isn't a problem. It wasn't that long ago that being what you consider overweight would have actually been considered healthy.

Restricting what types of foods we eat and how much of it isn't going to change anything. You could eat the healthiest food in the world and nothing but, and you know what? You still wouldn't lose enough weight to be considered healthy. The only thing that is going to help people is exercise, and unfortunately that is not an activity that is popular in a modern civilization.

I'm not opposing change, I'm simply saying there's no reason to, and even if there was, government intervention is not the way to go about it. People like you are exactly what is wrong with this country and the rest of the world. I guess I'll end this on a similar note. Obstructing those trying to live with the freedom that this country was fought for, that blood was shed for, isn't helpful.

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I'm against the ban, I'm against banning most things that only hurt yourself.

With that said, I'd have no objection to them putting a massive tax on larger servings. Just like smoking, don't ban it, but tax it to cover the costs associated with it.

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yeah and what about the people that get all kinda fatty mcdonalds and BK food (a whole bag full) and scarf down cheetos and wait for it...... wait for it.....

order a

DIET SODA!!!!

I'm like WTF????

Diet Coke actually has more caffeine than regular Coke, hence the reason I prefer Diet. However, I don't like McDonald's :D

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It is a "supposed" epidemic. Did you know that the scale, BMI, was devised in 1830? Most people, probably even yourself, would be considered overweight by that scale. The issue isn't the people when it comes to the rising numbers. It's the fact that the scale used to classify people is old and outdated.

Doing nothing is an option, because there isn't a problem. It wasn't that long ago that being what you consider overweight would have actually been considered healthy.

Restricting what types of foods we eat and how much of it isn't going to change anything. You could eat the healthiest food in the world and nothing but, and you know what? You still wouldn't lose enough weight to be considered healthy. The only thing that is going to help people is exercise, and unfortunately that is not an activity that is popular in a modern civilization.

I'm not opposing change, I'm simply saying there's no reason to, and even if there was, government intervention is not the way to go about it. People like you are exactly what is wrong with this country and the rest of the world. I guess I'll end this on a similar note. Obstructing those trying to live with the freedom that this country was fought for, that blood was shed for, isn't helpful.

^^Pretty much this.

---

The actual reason for higher so called obesity rates is because they changed to the BMI system as an indicator

On this system everyone is pretty much overweight, it doesn't take into account muscle, it's just height vs weight

Someone that is 6ft tall and 200 pounds is actually overweight, even if it's all muscle, add another 22 pounds of

muscle on to that, the person is obese.

The problem isn't as big as they'd like people to believe, and they're focusing on the wrong thing, the problem is

pretty much everything in the modern western diet.

But that doesn't mean we should go around banning things, people should be educated, and let them choose it's their life and body to ruin.

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Wow! So many people upset because the government is stepping on your toes. The government is going to keep taking away everything until we have nothing. So let's keep Obama in or bring Romney in and see how bad it gets. Neither one of them are worth a sh*t.

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hilarious how you just cant please the average american, no matter what you try to do to help them, they will bang on about their "freedom"

Freedom for those who dont understand it, and it seems a lot of americans dont, is a privilege, not a right

and you have to do your bit to earn it.

NYC board of health is doing somethign proactive, but if that infringes on your twisted understanding of freedom and you would rather keep downing a bucket of soda and 30 different types of cheese on a 20lb hamburger, then go ahead. but if i was a taxpayer and i knew that you banged on in outrage about something this trivial and that is designed to do you actual good, i wouldnt be funding your heart bypass down the track when youre gasping for breath, probably gasping on about your "freedom: and rights"

theres countless nutters on here posting about how much they hate (mostly due to ignorance) "obamacare", and then NYC does something proactive to try and lessen the chances people will need to use healthcare and prolong their lives, and theres nutters now complaining about that.

i mean f%$k me, but are some of you that mental?

turn thy nuclear bombs on thyself and do the world a favour

unbelievable

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Wow! So many people upset because the government is stepping on your toes. The government is going to keep taking away everything until we have nothing. So let's keep Obama in or bring Romney in and see how bad it gets. Neither one of them are worth a sh*t.

The President of the US has nothing at all to do with what municipal laws are passed.. but thanks for playing.
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The President of the US has nothing at all to do with what municipal laws are passed.. but thanks for playing.

Thanks for a rare dose of sanity!

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I'd look to know what you are cooking for $5 a person. Can't even buy meat for that price. Oh and if you like Taco Bell (I don't), you can definitely have a meal for $2.

Walmart sells beef for $10-20, and that can more than easily satisfy 3-4 normal sized people. Rice is like what $5? Add in a salad packet for like $3 and you have a meal. So that's a total of $28, split between 4 people that's $7 a person.

Now the Government is telling us what we can drink, how much. Can you order two?

Actually you'll find that fast food sizes in America are a lot larger than the rest of the world. What's considered medium here is like a large / extra large in other parts of the world.

All this law is doing is making the sizes more "normal", they aren't restricting how much soda you can drink in a day. If you want more, there's this thing that America has called free-refills. So if you want 50 ounces of soda in a day, just go refill your cup 3-4 times.

Oh but there's no point trying to get you to think logically since you probably think Obama and his socialist friends are behind this. :rolleyes:

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Walmart sells beef for $10-20, and that can more than easily satisfy 3-4 normal sized people. Rice is like what $5? Add in a salad packet for like $3 and you have a meal. So that's a total of $28, split between 4 people that's $7 a person.

Actually you'll find that fast food sizes in America are a lot larger than the rest of the world. What's considered medium here is like a large / extra large in other parts of the world.

All this law is doing is making the sizes more "normal", they aren't restricting how much soda you can drink in a day. If you want more, there's this thing that America has called free-refills. So if you want 50 ounces of soda in a day, just go refill your cup 3-4 times.

Oh but there's no point trying to get you to think logically since you probably think Obama and his socialist friends are behind this. :rolleyes:

Apparently getting a refill infringes on some peoples rights to have 1 ginormous cup in the first place "im an American and i want it THIS big"

Plus it infringes on their rights not to have to walk 30 feet and do something known as walking or exercise

Dont you know the Black Satan is behind everything :)......

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hilarious how you just cant please the average american, no matter what you try to do to help them, they will bang on about their "freedom"

Freedom for those who dont understand it, and it seems a lot of americans dont, is a privilege, not a right

and you have to do your bit to earn it.

NYC board of health is doing somethign proactive, but if that infringes on your twisted understanding of freedom and you would rather keep downing a bucket of soda and 30 different types of cheese on a 20lb hamburger, then go ahead. but if i was a taxpayer and i knew that you banged on in outrage about something this trivial and that is designed to do you actual good, i wouldnt be funding your heart bypass down the track when youre gasping for breath, probably gasping on about your "freedom: and rights"

theres countless nutters on here posting about how much they hate (mostly due to ignorance) "obamacare", and then NYC does something proactive to try and lessen the chances people will need to use healthcare and prolong their lives, and theres nutters now complaining about that.

i mean f%$k me, but are some of you that mental?

turn thy nuclear bombs on thyself and do the world a favour

unbelievable

Sorry, freedom is a right, you don't earn the right to be free... wtf country are you from where freedom is earned.

Do you have to fight to keep freedom on occasion, from people who wish to make freedom a privilege

I am not from the US and I disagree with banning them, it isn't solving anything, people will just order two or get refills

Doing something proactive would be educating people on drinking so much soda/sugar, maybe tell them if you drink this

You'll need to run/walk 20k to burn it off, drinking five of these will add 1 pound of fat to your already fat ass, etc

Education is key, not outlawing, people didn't stop smoking because it was banned, they did it because they know

it was bad for them(plus all the taxes).

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Sorry, freedom is a right, you don't earn the right to be free... wtf country are you from where freedom is earned.

Do you have to fight to keep freedom on occasion, from people who wish to make freedom a privilege

I am not from the US and I disagree with banning them, it isn't solving anything, people will just order two or get refills

Doing something proactive would be educating people on drinking so much soda/sugar, maybe tell them if you drink this

You'll need to run/walk 20k to burn it off, drinking five of these will add 1 pound of fat to your already fat ass, etc

Education is key, not outlawing, people didn't stop smoking because it was banned, they did it because they know

it was bad for them(plus all the taxes).

Im from a little place called Australia, and maybe im alone here in my country in thinking that freedom is a privilege not a right. Maybe i also think that way as im a former soldier, but freedom is not inherent, its only available by everyone doing their part. Id hate to think that people think freedom is a right given to you at birth, its a privilege extended to you by the sacrifices of those who came before you, and its extended to you to maintain.

Education hasnt obviously worked. The real issue is that the product is too readily available and the populace has been conditioned over decades via marketing into thinking bigger is better, and better value. Obviously, finally, someone at the NYC board of health has come to the realisation that they cant undo or compete with the marketing and conditioning of decades, so theyve taken what is the only logical step.

For all those banging on about this negatively, you;d hate it in my village, they banned bottled water years ago as people would single use the plastic bottles and throw them away and usually this meant litter. Instead they put in a free village water station and local businesses sell reusable bottles. This had several effects:

1) less litter

2) less plastic landfill

3) people buying less soda (or soft drinks as theyre known here) for 2 reasons:

a) the bottles are made of plastic

b) the water at the the village water station is free, and people like free ****

Number of protests: 0

Locals from the area just bring their resuable bottles when they come into the village

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