HRH Michael Bloomberg's proposal to ban large servings of sugary drinks was presented to New York City's Board of Health today. These political appointees voted unanimously to allow the proposal to proceed to a public hearing on July 24.By itself that's not worth reporting -- not here, anyway. No, what's truly stupefying is how excited Board members were about HRH Bloomberg's idea.
A handful of examples:
"'Why stop here?'" (Health Commissioner Thomas Farley)We could've predicted this -- unelected bureaucrats, people who haven't met a regulation they didn't love, greasing the slippery slope.
"This does not solve all problems, and there's plenty more issues to take up." (Board member Pamela Brier)
"We're really looking at restricting portion size, so the argument could be...what about the size of a hamburger or jumbo fries?" (Board member Dr. Michael Phillips)
"There are certainly milkshakes and milk coffee beverages that have monstrous amounts of calories in them, and I’m not so sure what the rationale is not to include those." (Board member Dr. Joel Forman)
"I was thinking about the typical movie theater with a 32-ounce drink and 32 ounces of popcorn -- the popcorn isn't a whole lot better from a nutritional point of view than the soda." (Board member Dr. Bruce Vladeck)
See where we're headed?
