I am sure there are mixed opinions about the Bloomberg Administration among NY residents. Mayor Bloomberg has been very active when it comes to obesity and health in general. He’s helped to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and public areas and he has banned trans-fats from New York City restaurants. Recently, Mayor Bloomberg proposed a ban on the sale of large size sugary drinks from New York City restaurants, movie theaters and street carts. These drinks include soda, energy drinks, sweetened coffees and teas, as well as fruit drinks with sugar. The proposed ban prohibits selling those drinks that are larger than 16 fluid ounces. I have seen huge sizes of soda containers (like a small bucket) in different states and was really shocked to see people drinking them!
Please take look at the above NY Times photo. There are several different size drink containers in front of Mayor Bloomberg. Along with the containers, sugar cubes are displayed Also, in front of the woman sitting next to Mayor Bloomberg, bottled drinks are placed along with packaged sugars. These sugars represent the amount of sugar contained in each drink. Can you believe it? One day I was almost going say something when I saw a man putting 5 bags of white sugar in a small cup of coffee!
The proposed ban excludes diet sodas, fruit juices (at least 70% fruits), dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, and it would not extend to beverages sold in grocery stores or convenience stores. I am not happy to hear about these exclusions. “Diet” soda is loaded with artificial sweeteners, and the artificial sweeteners are really bad for you in terms of general health as well as weight control. Non-100% juice is as bad as other sugary juice, and even 100% juice is high sugar content. Moreover, the milkshakes that is high in fat, sugar, and calories is totally unhealthy drinks. Also they eliminate sugary, milky and fatty cappuccino and latte coffee. I don’t know what this proposed ban is based on… If the Bloomberg Administration is trying to make NY “Healthy”, they shouldn’t eliminate those as well… Don’t you think so???
Your Body, Your Health, Your Life 