Bizarre, Politics, Society

Big Brother Takes The Big Gulp: New York Board Approves Ban On Large Sugary Drinks

NYC Board of Health has approved the controversial ban on sale of sugary drinks over 16 ounces. Despite objections (including on this blog) to the measure as the latest example of regulation for the Nanny State, the board passed the ban demanded by Mayor Bloomberg. The board insists that adults and parents cannot be trusted with such decisions and that health demands a ban. You absolutely, positively not order a large sugary drink . . . unless you put alcohol in it.


Ban applies fast-food joints, movie houses, Broadway theaters, workplace cafeterias and virtually everywhere you buy a soda. Of course, this merely means that Bloomberg is going to force you to buy multiple drinks like two eight ounce cups. Then again, you can get around this by adding booze which appears to make an unhealthy drink into a healthy beverage. Both alcoholic and milk-based drinks are exempt.

Moreover, if you derive less than 50% of their revenue from prepared foods — including 7-Eleven with its Big Gulp — can claim exemption. So you can fill up on sugary drinks next door as health inspectors crackdown on your restaurant.

The unanimous vote of this board shows how far we have gone toward the reduction of personal choices in various areas of life. I happen to agree with the board except for its view that it has the authority to make such decisions for people.

Honestly, if prohibition did not work for alcohol, it is likely to be even less successful for sodas. What is unclear is why Bloomberg is not also banning french fries, onion rings, and other unhealthy foods eaten in excessive quantities. How about requiring proof that a large stuffed pizza has no fewer than four persons willing to sign for it? I think people have a right to an unhealthy lifestyle. This is not like second-hand smoke that harms others. You can be around someone with a large soda and remain perfectly healthy.

The fact that there was not a single person on this board willing to vote with individual choice is perhaps the most alarming element of the story in my view.

What do you think?

Source: NY Post

62 thoughts on “Big Brother Takes The Big Gulp: New York Board Approves Ban On Large Sugary Drinks”

  1. You absolutely, positively not order a large sugary drink . . . unless you put alcohol in it.
    ===========
    Why is that a problem? I used to buy a pint of rum then buy a large sugary drink at the movie theater.

  2. Mitt Romney, Monsanto Man
    Friday, 14 September 2012 09:06 By Wayne Barrett, The Nation |

    Romney Ordering FoodMitt Romney and Paul Ryan ordering food in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin. (Photo: Eric Thayer / The New York Times)Though Mitt Romney has been campaigning for president since 2006, it’s alarming how little is known about critical chapters of his business biography. Nothing spells that out more clearly than his ties to Monsanto—the current target of a mid-September Occupy nationwide action—whose dark history features scandals involving PCBs, Agent Orange, bovine growth hormone, NutraSweet, IUD, genetically modified (GM) seed and herbicides, reaching back to the 1970s and ’80s. That’s when Monsanto was the largest consulting client of Romney’s employer, Bain & Company, and when Romney helped move Monsanto from chemical colossus to genetic giant, trading one set of environmental controversies for another.

    This history matters not just because of the light it sheds on Romney’s self-ballyhooed business experience but because of the litany of Monsanto corporate objectives that clash with planetary concerns. If Romney is elected, this bête noire of environmentalists will have a very old friend in a very high place.

  3. We either want the government to be our uber-parents, or we don’t.

    I’d personally settle for an ultra-wise, strong when necessary, out-of-my face distant uncle, who never wears out his welcome, and who knows how to keep burdening strangers out of the yard, and only talks out of one side of his mouth.

    But I suspect I’m very much in the shrinking minority.

  5. HFCS probably always had Mercury in it. Monsanto gave some one a nice Xmas present to keep it under wraps by no independent testing.

  6. shano, are you for real? Are they putting mercury in the HFCS now? If yes, wasn’t it bad enough BEFORE???

  7. Blouise, it’s easy: You buy a 14-oz. drink and for a penny (or nickel) extra you buy a BIIIIIIG cup of ice.

    If the New Yorkers don’t cotton on to this in a single minute, I’ll be very much surprised. Y’know what I mean?

  9. LOL here.

    You know why Bloomberg is doing this? He’s mad because his soda stocks tanked on him. Lost one percent of his fortune. Bad loser.

    Dr. Peppar, is that still around. I spat that one out at 20 years. The worst last longest, and that means sodas
    too.

    You ever try to chug a soda and have it come outta your nose. Refreshing? Just don’t chew some salty peanuts first?. You’ll be blowing your nose for hours.

  10. Guess you can’t get a big gulp delivered but will you still be able to get your coke……

  11. It’s official. New Yorkers have now admitted they are too stupid to decide, on their own, what size cup to pour Mr. Pibb into.

  13. Need a Big Gulp? Ask your doctor. My doctor gave me a prescription for Diet Dr. Pepper in 20 ounce doses. I should not have to go to a pharmacy in NYCity to get one.

  18. Blouise

    “I believe diet drinks are exempt along with alcohol and milkshakes”

    Ok. So diabetes and obesity are ok as long as they don’t get them with large soft drinks. Neurological disorders are ok. And all the side effects of alcohol are ok. Don’t think I like the message.

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