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People sour on proposed pop ban

4 min read

Freedom is a tricky thing.

This is a country where you are free to do any number of things that are bad for you: smoke, drink, ride motorcycles without helmets, watch “Dancing with the Stars.” None of these are good decisions, but you’re free to tempt Darwin nonetheless.

Well, Michael Bloomberg, New York City Mayor and Monopoly Guy stand-in, wants to change that.

Under the honorable goal of doing something (anything!) to combat the increasingly dire obesity epidemic in America, Bloomberg wants to ban large servings of soda (ahem, pop) and other sugary drinks in the city’s restaurants, delis and movie theaters.

The unprecedented proposal would, according to the Associated Press, impose a 16-ounce limit on sugary drinks sold at restaurants, movie theaters, sports venues and street carts. It would apply to bottled drinks — many plastic pop bottles contain 20 ounces — as well as fountain drinks.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. People who want to guzzle 32 ounces could just order two drinks. But Bloomsberg said restricting individual drinks to 16 ounces could help curb consumption. (Yes, mayor, in just the same way having libraries in every town could make everyone a big fan of Chaucer.)

Unsurprisingly, the blow back on the proposal was quick — so quick, you’d have thought it was hyper from too many sugary drinks.

“New Yorkers expect and deserve better than this. They can make their own choices about the beverages they purchase,” Coca-Cola Co. said in a statement. “We hope New Yorkers loudly voice their disapproval about this arbitrary mandate.”

(Coke’s stance is all about looking out for individual freedoms and not profits, of course.)

Leaving aside Coke’s profit motives and the inevitable partisanship, this is a dumb proposal. (It gets extra stupid when you consider it exempts diet drinks, which aren’t good for you either.) While the idea that something needs to be done about the worsening state of our health is a fair one, this is an incredibly misguided attempt at it.

Meanwhile, according to the AP, New York officials hope to spread this insanity. They said they believe it will ultimately prove popular with New Yorkers and push governments around the U.S. to adopt similar rules.

As someone with an unapologetic addiction to pop, this I cannot abide.

Listen, I drink way too much Coke (or Pepsi, or RC, or Sam’s Cola, or, well, anything that’s around). I know this. My wife will tell you this at the drop of a hat. Heck, I’ve written about pop in this space enough you should’ve figured that out. And, yes, I’m the guy who, if told I can’t buy a Pepsi larger than 16 ounces, will just buy three of them.

But I also have other healthy habits that offset my poor drink choices. And that’s the key: if we want to get serious about changing things more fundamental than the size options we have at McDonald’s.

If you want to make people healthier, banning things that are bad for them isn’t going to do it. You need to create an incentive for the good.

And you need to stop subsidizing the bad. Because of the insanely backward subsidies Congress doles out for political reasons, 2,000 calories of junk food cost just $3.52 a day while 2,000 calories of dense nutritional foods cost $36.32 a day, according to research published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

If we worked to make good food more attractive and affordable — or give people, say, a break on insurance if they have a healthy lifestyle — then maybe we can make some headway.

And don’t think that doing something is optional. The thinnest state in 2012 is fatter than the fattest state was in 1995, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There’s not a single state in the entire country where fewer than 20 percent of the population is considered obese. (If you’re wondering about Pennsylvania, 28.6 percent of us were obese in 2010, according to the CDC data.)

Combating obesity is a good idea — banning big soft drinks to do it isn’t.

If you’d like to buy him a soft drink, Brandon Szuminsky can be reached at bszuminsky@heraldstandard.com.

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