{"id":15842,"date":"2012-07-05T10:35:55","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T15:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=15842"},"modified":"2012-07-05T10:35:55","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T15:35:55","slug":"between-loopholes-and-exemptions-bloombergs-soda-rules-fail-to-address-real-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/07\/05\/between-loopholes-and-exemptions-bloombergs-soda-rules-fail-to-address-real-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Between loopholes and exemptions, Bloomberg’s soda rules fail to address real problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob Sullum<\/a> has a modest proposal to fix NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ineffectual soda rule:<\/p>\n

At a Board of Health meeting last month, several members zeroed in on the most obvious problem with Mayor Bloomberg\u2019s plan to shrink New Yorkers\u2019 waistlines by shrinking their soft drink servings: It does not go far enough.<\/p>\n

One member questioned the exception for milk-based beverages such as shakes, which \u201chave monstrous amounts of calories.\u201d Another noted that the carveout for convenience stores, supermarkets and vending machines (which are not regulated by the city\u2019s Health Department) means 7-Eleven\u2019s Big Gulp \u2014 the epitome of effervescent excess \u2014 will remain available. There also was murmuring about the continued legality of free refills, which will let people drink as much soda as they want, provided they do it 16 ounces at a time.<\/p>\n

But one glaring gap in Bloomberg\u2019s big beverage ban went unprobed: Why limit the limit to soft drinks? What about the hard stuff?<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

With all that in mind, think about eggnog, which is doubly exempt from Bloomberg\u2019s drink order, since it is milk-based and<\/em> alcoholic. This drink is a horror measured by calories alone, clocking in at 50 or so an ounce, more than four times the count for sugar-sweetened soda. Yet this lurking threat to thinness and sobriety is untouched by Bloomberg\u2019s pitiful pint-size pop prescription.<\/p>\n

Beer, also exempt from Bloomberg\u2019s serving ceiling, can contain as many as 28 calories an ounce \u2014 more than twice as many as soda. Why do you think they call it stout?<\/p>\n

Some sensible regulation in this area could head off many incipient beer bellies and lots of loutish behavior at Yankee games. Instead of the mayor\u2019s arbitrary 16-ounce limit, why not simply decree that all beer orders from now on will be light beer orders? Taste is a small sacrifice to make for public health.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacob Sullum has a modest proposal to fix NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ineffectual soda rule: At a Board of Health meeting last month, several members zeroed in on the most obvious problem with Mayor Bloomberg\u2019s plan to shrink New Yorkers\u2019 waistlines by shrinking their soft drink servings: It does not go far enough. One member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,84,66,13],"tags":[104,321,199,661],"class_list":["post-15842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-government","category-health-science","category-usa","tag-booze","tag-nyc","tag-prohibition","tag-regulation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-47w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15843,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15842\/revisions\/15843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}