<p>60% of community college students in New York City come from households with less than $30,000/year in income. In NYC. Would you have them buy hothouse tomatoes or join the health club?</p>
<p>This is not a law that says there’s a limit to how much soda you can buy or drink. It’s only a law that says the largest size soda that can be ordered in a restaurant, movie theater, or other retail establishment is 16 ounces.</p>
<p>If after drinking the first, you want to order a second, you can. </p>
<p>I noticed at a local college that the smallest size soda in the vending machines was 20 ounces. I don’t think that’s just one school–I think it’s standard.</p>
<p>In the mayor’s defense, there are studies that show that the percentage of our total caloric intake Americans get from beverages has increased astronomically over the past 15 or so years. That’s especially so for kids.</p>
<p>I don’t care how poor you are, there is never a reason to drink a soda (other than romani’s reason- an <em>occasional</em> indulgence/treat). That said, I don’t want the government to tell people what occasionally-safe foods they can consume or not. I want the people to take responsibility on their own to do the right thing.</p>
<p>I’m with you on the soda front. And as for “occasionally safe”, the same could be said of beef lungs. My bet is that, in a hundred years, looking back at our soda habit, folks will think we were a bunch of idiots for not banning it totally (and they’ll be right).</p>
<p>Bloomberg did successfully have calorie counts posted in many restaurants. (Can’t remember which ones don’t have to do it.) It was pretty eye-opening for a lot of people to see how many calories were in a bagel or a muffin. Donuts may not be good for you, but they have half the calories.</p>
<p>I have heard that he is also interested to regulate the volume of music you are listening to … while wearing headphones. I am not kidding. Heard it on radio.</p>
<p>The government is NOT telling people what food they consume. This law doesn’t apply to grocery stores. You can buy as big containers of soda as you want and lug them home. It does affect fast food franchises. Right now, at most of them, it’s not possible for anyone under 12 to buy a soda less than 20 ounces. If you exercise self-control and don’t drink it all, you throw it out and the store still profits. </p>
<p>The biggest Bloomberg health initiative is anti-smoking. First, if you do smoke, there was a period of more than a year during which you could get free anti-smoking treatment, including nicotine patches, etc., counseling sessions, etc.</p>
<p>And, he has made a number of the mini “parks” smoke free. (These aren’t really parks; they are small areas with tables and chairs that are set aside for pedestrians, e.g., across from Macy’s. ) The same rule applies to most of the “public spaces” of large office buildings, especially their mini “parks,” where many office workers eat their lunches on nice days. It really is nice to be able to eat your lunch with only the car fumes and not cigarettes and cigar fumes too.</p>
<p>The CC kids are lucky; they’ve managed to go to school. </p>
<p>Living on less than $30k a year in NYC while holding a job, and eating well and exercising would seem almost a superhuman effort to me. (But there is no reason why folks should be drinkin’ poison.)</p>
<p>“Oh please, mini, don’t lecture about being poor.”</p>
<p>Don;t need to lecture; the facts speak for themselves.</p>
<p>I disagree. Exercising is really tough for poor working people in NYC. Most people live in small apartments. The stairwells are often unsafe, so walking up the stairs is out of the question. People stay locked up and inside their apartments after dark. Many people work long hours or more than one job.</p>
<p>I’m really not interested in this debate, but believe it or not, it’s quite possible to workout in your apartment. I do it every day. Very, very tiny space. I’m on the top floor and no one complains.</p>
<p>My hunch is you don’t share your apartment with half a dozen other people. Lots of people here do. </p>
<p>I just think mini is right when he says it’s harder for poor people to eat right and exercise–I just don’t think that’s true for college students.</p>
<p>And, more germane to this thread, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for a mayor to try to improve the health of a City’s citizens.</p>
<p>A general rule for many obese people is that they’ve experienced hunger. There are sound physiological reasons for this (but this isn’t a medical forum). Of course, they could go to a doctor… Oh, wait, people in NYC, working, and living on less than $30k, going to the doctor? What’s wrong with this picture?</p>
<p>The medical profession isn’t going to improve the health of City residents anytime soon. Bless the Mayor for trying (even if I remain to be convinced of the efficacy of his efforts.)</p>
<p>Now, we could talk about the relationship between sleep and obesity, and then we’d really be on to something…</p>
<p>is it shallow to say that a lot of poor people are ignorant and that they don’t really care whether their food comes from the fresh produce section or McDonalds? Staying fit is more about diet than exercising, and it’s not like these groceries are expensive. sure it’s easy to pick from the dollar menu, but how much harder is it to cook a real meal?</p>
<p>sleep deprivation tends to make people eat more. That’s not really a secret either.</p>
<p>That’s the kind of thing I agree with- educating the populace further about healthier lifestyles and maybe even increasing taxes on such junk food, but not outright bans.</p>
<p>A fresh produce section? It is true that when I was growing up in New York, we only lived seven blocks from a “supermarket” that had something that might be construed to be a “fresh produce section”. We didn’t have a car, so we walked. (Good exercise! especially when it snowed). That supermarket is long gone. Now my brother, a double amputee, still lives in that house, and he has a car. Houses on my block now go for $400k. If households with $30k or less in income are living on the block, they obviously can’t afford cars. And, when they are home, they probably aren’t eating much at McDonalds either (there was none in my neighborhood when growing up.) There is one now, about six blocks away, and I imagine there are folks who eat their main meal there on the way home from work after they get off the bus. </p>
<p>But a “fresh produce section”? Maybe at the 7/11. (There is one, five blocks away, in the other direction.) Shopping the sales? Where? What sales?</p>
<p>It is true that I could live on rice, lentils, and beans. I expect there are a bunch of people on the block who are living on rice, lentils, and beans. But prepping rice, lentils, and beans takes time. And yes, poor people make bad choices. Rich people do too. When rich people do, it is less likely to kill them.</p>
<p>In NYC, soda is a heck of a lot more dangerous than beef lungs. But it will give you a sugar jolt (and maybe a caffeine jolt), and get you to the next non-meal.</p>
<p>There are 474,000 kids in NYC who face hunger. 1.7 million NYC residents live in poverty. If you ran a supermarket, and had to get fresh produce trucked to the store in NYC, how much fresh produce do you think you’d stock, and what do you think you’d charge?</p>