As an increasing body of research has tied the consumption of sugary drinks to obesity, public efforts like Bloomberg’s represent one small step toward reorienting a culture where portion sizes have continued to spiral out of control. Restaurants’ portion sizes are more than four times larger now than they were in the 1950s — and that culture of excess is making its way into Americans’ homes, too, where meals are also getting bigger. Soft drinks sizes specifically have seen one of the largest increases, ballooning by over 50 percent since the mid-1970s. And research suggests that larger portion sizes do lead people to consume more than they would have otherwise, since we tend to estimate calories with our eyes rather than our stomachs.
Yeah, I know; it’s been far too easy to make fun of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to ban supersized sugary sodas. Everyone from Jon Stewart to Sarah Palin have had their share of fun at his expense. I can understand the visceral reaction to Bloomberg’s perceived “nanny state” tactics, but there’s some solid scientific evidence to support what he was trying to accomplish. Lost in the rampant mockery of Bloomberg’s soda ban is the fact that obesity is a (no pun intended) growing problem. Bloomberg had the right idea; it can be argued that his tactics may have been a bit ham-handed, but he was trying to do the right thing for the right reasons.
Americans on average consume 270 calories per day from soft drinks, and childhood obesity rates have tripled since 1980. That’s not to say that nothing can or should be done. In fact, states with aggressive nutrition policies- things like limiting fried food and sugary soft drinks in school cafeterias- have actually experienced decreases in childhood obesity. The question is how to do something to reverse current trends that don’t smack of “nanny state” tactic.
Bloomberg was right to tackle sugary soft drinks. His methods might be open to question, but his recognition of the problem was spot on. It’s a problem that public health advocates continue to wrestle with. How DO you convince people that their digging their graves with their teeth…or in this case, a straw from a 64-oz. Big Gulp? Legislating maximum soft drink sizes may seem silly and open to ridicule, but when you get past the ridicule and the posturing, Bloomberg was attempting to address a very real problem, albeit in a way that was uniformly poorly received.
Fault the man’s methods; the problem he identified is very real. Then again, you don’t want to mess with an American’s inalienable right to drain their 64-oz. Mountain Dew.
Now Bloomberg’s decided to take on cigarette displays in stores. The food and beverage industry may have won Round One, but Big Tobacco is in a far less advantageous position. It’ll be a good day when a smoker has to board a flight to Murmansk in order to light up, eh?
