I’ve been following with interest as New York City’s mayor Michael Bloomberg moves to ban large containers of “sugary drinks”.
Besides that he really means “high fructose corn syrup drinks,” as mainstream American sodas haven’t been mixed with sugar since 1981, the ban is full of loopholes allowing items like 7-11’s Big Gulp and worse, gives a pass to the “diet” forms of these sodas, which have their own set of evils when it comes to the public health.
Diet sodas in general are linked to a 61% increase in strokes and heart attacks, according to the American Stroke Association. They are full of toxic sweeteners such as Aspartame, Neoname, and Sucralose, all of which can have neurotoxic effects when consumed.
In my opinion, our public health struggle against obesity has some misguided assumptions and applications. Still, when Oprah and Dr. Oz suggested that people who want to lose weight give up drinking soda altogether, many saw weight loss in just two weeks. Perhaps NYC should ban all sodas and see where that leads…
