Supper Size Soft Drink by Russell Bernice
Some pretty interesting health news lately. First the large soft drink cup thing in New York, and now Disney is going to stop advertising junk food.
I’m particularly excited about Disney. The only thing I can’t figure out is why did they wait so long? It only makes sense to their bottom line to help parents provide good nutrition to their children. Of course, many parents need to be educated too.
Other companies have agreed to limit junk food marketing through the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. From 2003 to 2008 these types of ads dropped from 94% to 86%. They wrote that like it’s a big deal.
Kids are so much more susceptible to junk food than what that 8% will help. A step in the right direction though. And, with Disney going all out, good results are sure to happen.
The policy isn’t going to take full effect until 2015 though. But, it includes all their enterprises, all radio, television and online ads will include no sugary foods.
Super Size Me?
New York’s mayor Bloomberg’s announcement to restrict large sugary drinks is another interesting story. Restricting only large sugary drinks but not including diet and fruit drinks really makes no sense since those are at least as bad.
Fruit juice is not the same as fruit because the fiber is removed. It’s more like concentrated fruit sugar or fructose. Fructose is worse than white sugar because of the way it metabolizes in the body. Sugar free soft drinks are sweetened with aspartame and other artificial sweeteners which have been shown to have numerous negative effects on the body.
Artificial sweeteners also stimulate hunger, so they don’t really help weight loss or weight maintenance at all. They do this by causing the body to get ready for the extra calories which don’t come, so you are left feeling hungry.
Obviously, it would be best to eliminate all soft drinks anyway. That stuff is just bad.
The best thing about Bloomberg’s attempt is that he is bringing awareness to a big problem in the way people eat. The US has become a ‘super size me’ country with deleterious effects on weight.
While many people may not support a law that takes away the freedom to choose how large of a soft drink can be bought, at there is an increase in the awareness of how much sugar is in that cup.
Stay aware of what you put in your mouth, it’s the best way to get and stay healthy.
Be sure to post this article to your social networks for your friends to read.
I love Mayor Bloomberg. As a native New Yorker, I can say that he’s a great mayor. Being as enormously successful as a business man as he is before becoming Mayor, he has no need to prove himself. He has calmly, decently, benevolently and intelligently served the City of New York in so many important ways. This is yet another.
I agree, Kalidasa, it is not the whole ball of wax junk food wise, but it does send a message in the right direction. I think it’s an important step and will raise awareness. This will help to lay the groundwork for more
consciousness down the line.
I’m quite sure the general public has NO IDEA how harmful these drinks and “foods” are. Probably a tiny percentage.
This is why a small healthy boundary to raise public awareness is a huge shift!
And that’s a really good thing.
So thank you, Mayor Bloomberg. You’re doing a great job!!!
You, too, Kalidasa..!
And thank you, Martha!
Did the Food-Fascist restrict how MANY 16 oz drinks you can buy at one time? I doubt it.
This is really nothing more than empty, meaningless grandstanding – it LOOKS good, but has no substance.
Anyone so uninformed, or plain old dumb, to not know that a 32 ounce drink is too big, probably will just buy 2 16 ouncers, if they can figure out that 2 times 16 is 32.
@terrence I think that is the idea, they can buy as much as they want, but there is a limit on the size of the cup. Bloomberg wants to force people to think about it. I agree that it’s not a popular idea, and it may not even make it into law. But, it is making for a lot of conversation.