Behind Super-Sized Sodas, a Deeper Danger [View all]

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



Behind Super-Sized Sodas, a Deeper Danger
June 2, 2012

Sugary soft drinks, as Michael Bloomberg reminds us, do our nation no good. But if we really want to narrow our waistbands, we’re going to have to narrow the income gaps that divide us.

By Sam Pizzigati


The billionaire mayor of New York wants his city’s Board of Health to ban super-sized servings of sodas and other sugar-packed drinks.

Some 58 percent of New Yorkers, explains mayor Michael Bloomberg, currently rate as either overweight or obese. Their excess pounds are driving up the city’s health care costs, he argues, and even putting lives at jeopardy.

“Obesity,” the mayor told a national TV audience last week, “will kill more people than smoking in the next couple of years.”

Maybe so, his critics counter, but no ban on super-sized sodas is going to fix that obesity. Any ban, the critics contend, would be unenforceable. And why pick on soda and not chocolate cake? Or any other “fattening food”? ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/behind-super-sized-sodas-a-deeper-danger/