Children's Health & Fitness ? The Fizzy Math Behind Bloomberg's ...

July 21st, 2012 by Len Saunders

From Reason?..

On Tuesday the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene will hold a public hearing on Mayor Bloomberg?s proposal to ban the sale in the city of sweetened beverages greater than 16 ounces. The ban would impact drinks containing sugar or any other ?caloric sweetener,? which could include everything from a 20 ounce bottle of soda sold by a food truck or cart to a soda sweetened with high fructose corn syrup sold by a fast food restaurant to an iced tea sweetened with honey sold by a baseball-park vendor.

I?ll be speaking in opposition to the ban at the hearing?on behalf of the members and supporters of the nonprofit I lead, Keep Food Legal?for two main reasons. First, the ban would restrict food freedom of choice. In this way it?s no different than several other New York City food-related bans dreamt up by Mayor Bloomberg?s administration that I noted in an earlier Reason column on the soda ban. A partial list of these bans includes a proposal to restrict new tavern licenses, a suggested ban on happy hours, a ban on food donations to homeless shelters, an attempt to limit restaurants? use of salt, and a trans fat ban.

The second reason the ban is a bad idea is that it rests on bad assumptions. It?s this latter argument that particularly interests me here.

For one, the justification for the proposed rule appears to rest largely on a claim that Americans are obese because we ?consume 200-300 more calories daily than 30 years ago, with the largest single increase due to sugary drinks.? But nothing in the one citation on which that claim is based, a 2005 article in the Annual Review of Public Health, directly supports this bold claim.

Rather, the authors of that study looked at the results of five earlier studies that showed ?caloric intake rose by roughly 12% (300 calories per day) between 1985 and 2000, mainly because of increased consumption of grains, added fats, and added sugars.?

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Entry Filed under: Health / Fitness Articles

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=2324

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