from: storyful.com by Trish Unruh
The NYC Health board voted 8 to 1 to ban sweetened drinks over 16 oz in restaurants, movie theaters, food vendors and other eating places. I wish it wasn't necessary to set a policy for drink size. But what incentive does a restaurant owner have to offer smaller portions sizes when the restaurant next door is offering large portion sizes of meals and sweet drinks for the same price?
Be sure to read the 60 second interview with Lisa R. Young Ph.D, RD at the end of the Metro article. I agree with her view that people will drink less sweetened beverages because they won't want to pay for another drink. Just like it has been made easy for us to drink ever larger portions of sweet drinks having to pay for another drink will make it easier to drink less.
Tagged: restaurants, sweet drinks
Comments
kbritt 8 months ago
In an obesity report that came out earlier this week, I was surprised to see how much portion sizes have grown during the past 20 years. Examples in the report: • 3-inch bagel is now 6 inches. • 4.5-ounce cheeseburger is now 8 ounces. • 5 cups of movie theater popcorn is now 11 cups. • 6.5-ounce soda is now 20 ounces. For more information about the report, visit http://ljw.bz/Sc7zBM.
George_Braziller 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Portion sizes are an arbitrary number and have to be looked at in the context of an entire day and the caloric requirements for the individual. I haven't eaten lunch for years so breakfast and dinner are my two meals for the day.
At 51 I'm 132 pounds and just shy of six feet tall. I need about 3,000 calories a day to keep some weight on me. I can eat an entire pizza myself and then get up in the middle of the night for a snack because I'm still hungry.
livinginlawrence 8 months ago
A nice new policy that will help people to make better decisions for themselves. It seems so silly to me that people have gotten all up in arms over the idea this policy, as if it's some huge infringement on their liberty, tantamount to tyranny.
Derkle25 8 months ago
Right, because the government telling me what to do is not tyranny? So, when the gov't tells one of your family members to abort a female child because there are too many females in this country are you still going to be ok with gov't telling you what to do? This is what's happening in China RIGHT NOW! This is exactly where this country is heading if people like YOU don't start thinking about when the last time gov't gave up a power, a tax, or a CONTROL over people. Please think through what the repercussions of what some small acts can cause. This is just the beginning of what they will start "deciding" for you.
ultimate175 8 months ago
I hope they ban Big Macs and quarter pounders next (surely something is next, right?). I can never seem to make good decisions about burger size on my own, and it would be so helpful for my benevolent government to eliminate that choice for me. Bless their hearts.
meganstuke 8 months ago
Yeah, I consider myself a VERY solid liberal, and this even gets under my skin. Talk about Nanny government. Something about this makes me very uncomfortable.
Derkle25 8 months ago
How can any of you "free thinking" liberals be ok with this? It boggles my mind that the same people that fight so hard to be able to protest anything, and I mean anything, go willfully, cheerily along with what ever this administration tells them to do. It's horrible how people no longer can take the blinders off and realize that this IS socialism. There is no other way to describe a government that tells you what you can and can not do, or eat, or choose. Our forefathers DIED to prevent government from telling them what to do. This is the slippery slope that leads to far worse things than how large of a soda you can buy. How long before they start telling you what profession you can be, how many kids you can have, and who knows what other things they'll decide for you. WAKE UP!!! I'm not saying you should be a republican, democrat or whatever, I'm saying start paying attention to what our government is doing to YOU!!
LarryNative 7 months, 4 weeks ago
All this means is more work for wait staff getting free refills for customers.
TrishUnruh 7 months, 4 weeks ago
Thanks for all your comments. I am also reluctant to have government intervene in this way. But as Karrey commented, our portion sizes of everything has almost doubled. How do we reverse the trend of ever larger portion sizes? See Karrey's story on the wellcommons home page about a report that our rate of obesity could be 62% by 2030.
What ideas do you have to change this trend? Maybe we could all ask for half or split a portion every time we eat out for the next week. If enough of us ask for smaller portions consistently I know the restaurant owners will notice.
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