Mayor Bloomberg 's controversial ban on large, sugary sodas fell flat Monday when a judge shredded nearly every legal argument advanced by the mayor’s lawyers and tossed the regulation out.
“Arbitrary and capricious” to be sure and, plainly speaking, trivial.
It’s important to put the situation, vis-à-vis sugar-sweetened beverages, into perspective.
Prohibition doesn’t work. How many times do we have to learn this lesson? What works is personal responsibility and adherence to the Aristotelian Mean (aka – moderation).
Sugar-sweetened beverages play a small and declining portion of the American diet – just 7 percent of total calories. By nearly every measure, the contribution of calories from beverages to the diet is declining. According to the CDC, added sugars consumed from soda is down 39 percent since 2000 and from 1999-2010, full-calorie soda sales have declined 12.5 percent. Yet obesity rates are still rising. We need to focus on real ideas that address the big picture.
It’s time to put tabloid headlines behind us and move on to addressing the real story.
In June the CDC reported that 20.5 percent of New York City high school students had no physical education classes -- compared with 14.4 percent a decade earlier.
New York City has not filed a physical education plan with the state since 1982. It’s time for Mayor Bloomberg to step down from the bully pulpit long enough to get our kids back into the gym.
It’s time for the Mayor to take a big gulp, stop talking about fizz and start focusing on phys ed.
