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#121
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Peds want soda ban
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#122
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Peds want soda ban
Yes, this is getting too close to how the tabaccoo industry was
destroyed. I am a big fan of personal choice, and I understand the tobacco problems, but soda is crazy... I heard an article quoted someone saying "other people eating junk food is making me want to eat it too, it isn't fair" C'mon, people need to have some self control here! Parents have to learn to not be afraid to tell their kids "No". That is one of the many reasons why society is in the horrible shape it's in right now. Now if a school were to ban all sodas from campuses (including sodas brought from home), where would that leave diet sodas like Caffeine-Free Diet Coke, Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi, and Caffeine-Free Diet Dr. Pepper? Would they have to be banned as well? Check out this vision of a future where Big Brother dictates health policy to all Americans : http://www.consumerfreedom.com/oped_...fm?OPED_ID=158 Last Call Slim Pickings Published: The American Spectator By: David Martosko Posted On October 1, 2003 Is it really ten years since the Total Overhaul Of Flab And Taxation (TOOFAT) Act of 2004 became law? I didn't realize so much time had passed until my nine-year-old asked for help with an essay about the years before Calorie Czar Kelly Brownell saved us from ourselves. Brownell first popularized the idea of a "Twinkie Tax"--back when you could still buy Twinkies. He was a scientific advisor to a group set up by President Nader, called the Center for Science in the Public Interest. People used to call them the "food police"--back before there actually were Food Police. In those early years, Brownell lacked the vision to see past creme-filled sponge cakes to the fat-tax promised land of buttered popcorn, guacamole, and pizza. That, history shows, is where the real money was. He co-wrote a paper in 2000 with CSPI co-founder Michael Jacobson, suggesting "small taxes on soft drinks and snack foods." How far we've come. Three years later, in his 2003 book Food Fight, Brownell advocated "large snack taxes (in the range of 5 to 10 percent)" in order to "decrease consumption of unhealthy foods." He even hinted that support would be highest "for taxes with funds earmarked for children." Kelly Brownell knew us well. I hardly noticed anything during the first two years after TOOFAT became law. An extra nickel for a can of soda, a twenty-cent tax on a pound of butter, a dime more for a cheese Danish. Big deal. My wife and I were perfectly healthy anyway, and we figured the money was going to teach fat slobs how to exercise. Maybe, we thought, they'd also learn how to visit a buffet without packing an overnight bag. We didn't notice anyone slimming down, but Kelly Brownell meant well. Two thousand six and 2007 were tougher to handle, as our grocery bills became less predictable. Congress learned to use TOOFAT taxes to raise money for anything and everything. Need a new stealth bomber? Raise the potato-chip tax. Potholes need repairing? We'd all just have to pay more for milk. By 2008, every delicious food had been so demonized that no career-minded politician would dare oppose a new TOOFAT target. Then Kelly Brownell added restaurants, stadium concessions, and ice-cream shops to the revenue stream. This was about the time New York lawmaker Felix Ortiz and California state Senator Deborah Ortiz began showing up on movie screens between the Coming Attractions. "Team Ortiz" had pioneered fat-taxes and soft drink bans in their home states back in 2003. "We Want You," they would say, "to eat rice cakes and drink organic bottled water." Felix would warn that the price of movie nachos was about to go up (again), and Deborah would remind kids attending Harry Potter and the Order of Celery Sticks that Milk Duds were now rated "R." The kids weren't getting any slimmer, but Team Ortiz did its best. Eventually, we stopped paying attention to the weekly Food Price Index. We knew that tofu and broccoli were cheaper than everything we liked to eat. Sure, we had trouble adjusting. Up was down. Good was bad. The cost of Halloween candy nearly bankrupted us. "Dad," my three munchkins would ask, "why do we have to share one order of French fries?" "Because it costs ten dollars," I'd whisper. "Now sit still while I pour you each a thimble of Diet Sprite." I never understood why a fat-free, calorie-free drink needed extra taxes, but I suppose we can't make exceptions for innocent-looking sodas. Carbonation equals obesity. That's what Kelly Brownell always said. We still weren't slimming down, but over time I got used to these changes. We all did. Looking back, it's amazing how Americans changed their eating behaviors in just ten years. It helped when Congress expanded TOOFAT to cover all high-calorie foods and beverages. I never liked the taste of beer anyway. _____ "how wuz hat putato plaed? did bil kulin tos a putato at thu kuntestintz? tat wuld ba funi." - Grant "Tardtram" Bartram "God bless thongs." - Jim Ross |
#123
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Peds want soda ban
Health outcomes from obesity are somehow different than outcomes from
smoking? I think reduced life expectancy is reduced life expectancy. There is a difference. Smoking is not necessary to live. Eating is necessary to live. There are no good/bad foods. True, some foods are not as nutritious as other foods, but all foods can be okay as long as you eat a well-balanced diet. The big problem is that people eat too much these days. The right to eat or drink whatever foods or drinks you want is one of the basic human rights which people who stand for freedom wouldn't dare to trample on. Unfortunately, there are people who want Big Brother to tell you what you can and cannot eat/drink. Did you know that the PCRM has said that any parent who feed their kids red meat is "guilty of child abuse"? As I've stated many times before...if you want to be a vegetarian, that is your right, but once you try to force food/drink choices on society, you become no better than a Nazi. Freedom is a double-edged sword. You have freedoms, but you must respect the freedoms of others (of course you don't have to LIKE freedoms that others have, but that's another issue). _____ "how wuz hat putato plaed? did bil kulin tos a putato at thu kuntestintz? tat wuld ba funi." - Grant "Tardtram" Bartram "God bless thongs." - Jim Ross |
#124
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Peds want soda ban
Tulip Tracy wrote:
I think that comparing junk food to cigarettes is extreme and melodramatic. I'm not suggesting that we hand children drugs so they can learn what an OD feels like. But we need to think about the long term affects of banning simple, every day products from their lives. Children -- and many American adults -- need to learn about moderation. And it is very difficult to learn about moderating things if you are not taught how to say "no" in the first place. And the mentality of children is that things that are not allowed = cool. So maybe a vending machine isn't available in school. But the second those kids get to a birthday party in a bowling alley or go to the mall, guess where all their quarters go. By your logic the way to teach a child moderation is to hand them the cookie jar and hope thay get tired of eating the cookies. Besides, you miss the bogger point. The teaching of this type of things is the responsibility of the parent. if the parent wants to leave it up to the kid then they can give the kids soda or not as they see fit. The schools are undermining the parents. -- CBI, MD |
#125
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Peds want soda ban
Darth Chaos wrote:
Yes, this is getting too close to how the tabaccoo industry was destroyed. I am a big fan of personal choice, and I understand the tobacco problems, but soda is crazy... I heard an article quoted someone saying "other people eating junk food is making me want to eat it too, it isn't fair" C'mon, people need to have some self control here! Parents have to learn to not be afraid to tell their kids "No". That is one of the many reasons why society is in the horrible shape it's in right now. That's right. And if the parent has said "no" the school should not be saying "yes". -- CBI, MD |
#126
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Peds want soda ban
Darth Chaos wrote:
Health outcomes from obesity are somehow different than outcomes from smoking? I think reduced life expectancy is reduced life expectancy. There is a difference. Smoking is not necessary to live. Eating is necessary to live. Neither is Coke. |
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