A court of Appeals decision today cleared the way for any fast food vendors in New York City to continue to sell mega sized soft drinks and although Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that this is not the end it will be very difficult to try and re-enact a law that will stop oversized sodas from being sold.
Although there seemed to be a huge outcry to the law that Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to enact last year the fact is that the idea of giant soft drinks need to be stopped at some point.
The American Beverage Association of course is really happy that the rights of the businesses that they represent were not trampled on but of course selling soft drinks seems to be immune to any prosecution. And of course the American Beverage Association does not have to worry about the terrible health costs of soft drink sales, they just continue to crank them put and let cities, states, and the country as a whole pay the ovewhelming obesity costs as peoples health continues to dive and health costs escalate.
So lets just take a look at why this law would have been a good thing.
One can of soda has about 12 tablespoons of sugar in it as a sweetner. Although sugar in itself is not so bad the load of an extra large soft drink will cause a huge load on the pancreas, kidneys, and of course cause blood sugar swings that in itself messes up your energy and eventually turns into fat. How about 5 times that amount in a drink? That would be disastrous!
And what about diet soda? Aspartame has been long linked to several cancers but the FDA was at the time pressured by government payoffs to allow this chemical to be used as a sweetner.
So what gives? Is there really a need to allow people the right, through the ABA, to have the biggest drinks possible when we all know that there are major health concerns? Is there a duty of care that can be lobbed over to the American Beverage Association so that they have some sort of responsibility to the people that buy their products?
