Last night, New York City Mayor Bloomberg announced a new plan banning the sale of sugar soda over 16 oz:

In New York City, where more than half of adults are obese or overweight, Dr. Thomas Farley, the health commissioner, blames sweetened drinks for up to half of the increase in city obesity rates over the last 30 years. About a third of New Yorkers drink one or more sugary drinks a day, according to the city. Dr. Farley said the city had seen higher obesity rates in neighborhoods where soda consumption was more common.

The ban would not apply to drinks with fewer than 25 calories per 8-ounce serving, like zero-calorie Vitamin Waters and unsweetened iced teas, as well as diet sodas.

We applaud this new policy because it forces everyone to behave better and more responsibly for the benefit of the majority.  Poor health affects everyone — not just the individual — and if the role of the government is to serve the people and to protect us from the bad behavior of others, then it makes complete sense to restrict the sugary cudgels that are making so many of us unfit and unwell.

NYC should take an even more advanced step and require “Calorie Cards” for every resident.  Any time you wanted to purchase fast food, or something unhealthy, you’d have to swipe your card.  If you used your allotted calories for the month, your purchase would be denied and you would instead be offered your choice of a fruit snack or a vegetable entree free of charge.

If we, as a society, are willing to take children from incompetent parents, and regulate gun laws to protect our general welfare, why wouldn’t we also want to intervene for the greater goodness of our shared Public Health and remove the sugar from the obsessive swallows that have chronically inflated medical bills and rotted us into an early grave from the inside?

6 Comments

    1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
      David W. Boles says:

      These are “fast food” calorie cards only — so Public Health officials would have to determine a baseline for a “safe” amount of fast food calories for consumption every month.

        1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
          David W. Boles says:

          Of course they would! They also used to offer to Super Size everything, too.

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