NYC ban on drinks

New York City wants to ban large soft drinks and other sugary type drinks. How does everyone feel about this? Is this a good ban, or a foolish one, and why?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47628473/ns ... ork_times/

Did they try something like this before in some other state, perhaps California?

In my opinion, I think they mean well, but I think this is not going to stop people from drinking large sodas and other drinks if they want them. If they can't get them at one place then they will just try somewhere else or get them at home.

PBS Newshour had a good segment on all this for their Thursday night broadcast. The logic is taking advantage of human psychology - you're given a certain portion, and once you're done with that, that's it, you're done. However, it's definitely flawed, as nothing stops people from buying multiple drinks or just getting them at grocery stores and convenience stories, which are exempted from the law. I can understand trying to do something given the huge problem of obesity, but I'm not sure this will work. That said, education on the matter alone, which is what one of the people who was on PBS kept advocating, isn't doing much either to stop people from overindulging in sugary drinks. Anyway, for those interested, here's the link to the PBS segment.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/j ... 05-31.html

I had heard something about this, but not that it excluded grocery stores and the like. With that in mind, I don't think this will have much impact. It won't reduce drinking of sodas at home, so I can't see it reducing obesity very much. I suppose it could save restaurants and theaters a little bit of money, since they won't have to stock larger cups. They'll probably increase prices on the smaller drinks to make up for profits lost by no longer selling the bigger ones, however.

Well, it looks like Coke and McDonald's, among possible others, are not going to take this ban sitting down but may offer up some resistance:

http://money.msn.com/investing/latest.a ... 8403375eae

Do you think their efforts will do any good??

That's to be expected. If this ban were to succeed in New York, other places might try it as well. The soda companies could potentially loose a lot of money if it becomes widespread. They'll probably take the ban to court if it goes into effect. They may get it overturned, they may not. It'll be interesting to watch and see.

Update: It looks like a Judge has ruled against this ban, for now anyways:

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/bloombe ... -1C8809186

The ramifications from this, had the judge not ruled against it, would have been rather frightening. Would have opened up a foothold to all sorts of unwelcomed new governmental policies restricting the freedom of individual choice on consumables.

Tweeg wrote:

The ramifications from this, had the judge not ruled against it, would have been rather frightening. Would have opened up a foothold to all sorts of unwelcomed new governmental policies restricting the freedom of individual choice on consumables.

Perhaps, though that ship already sailed in 1906.

You make an interesting point there person with a Hanako avatar. The FDA's role has certainly been turned into a travesty of what it was intended to serve us for, but it still doesn't have the power to dictate how much of something one can have and when, nor the ability to dictate limits on the amount of whatever consumable it may be to be served by the foods industry to an individual.

It comes down to making decisions for ones self. If you want to go out and drink a gallon of Sprite, that's your choice. It's certainly not a healthy choice in the long term run of things, but neither is alcoholic beverage consumption, smoking, and eating undercooked meat.

Another victory in the overturn of this silly ban on large soft drinks, etc.:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07 ... rinks?lite

I would think there would be more pressing issues to address in the political/governing circle than trying to prevent people from drinking large cola's, etc., but that's just my opinion.