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A JUDGE IN New York has quashed plans to ban the sale of giant fizzy drinks in the city, re-opening the debate about whether it will be possible to implement the prohibition on selling the drinks.
The city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed the ban on drinks above 470ml in size from fast food and other restaurants in a bid to tackle obesity levels. Figures suggest around 6,000 people die in New York every year from problems related to obesity.
However critics and lobby groups say the proposal is ineffective as people can just buy as many smaller drinks as they want, and the ban would not apply to supermarkets or shops. The proposal was also criticised for encroaching too much into people’s lives.
So today we’re asking: Should there be a ban on the sale of large fizzy drinks in Ireland?
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I don’t think they should be banned, but there would be no harm in requiring them to display exactly how many spoons of sugar equivalent is in them (rather than just some calorie count).
That way people could make an informed choice.
Are you saying people are uninformed currently? Really?
Yeah, I am – There’s a big difference between knowing something’s sugary and being told it’s got say 9 to 11 spoons of sugar in it. Most people think in relative terms and in units that they are familiar with rather than scientific terms.
I would stay the majority of people would be fairly disgusted if you suggested putting 11 spoons of sugar in your tea/coffee. Where as saying that this can of soft drink contains 141 kcal doesn’t exactly provoke much of a strong response as nobody really knows what that looks like in reality.
It also states how much sugar is in the bottle..surely is easy to work out!?
It does on some bottles, it doesn’t on others and it rarely says how much sugar’s on a large takeaway cup / cinema cup.
Where it does say the sugar content, it is normally written in grams which is still not a unit that people can visualise.
Does your average person actually know what say 26.5g of sugar looks like? I seriously doubt it. We measure sugar in spoons in beverages in reality.
I’ve never heard anyone ask for 8 grams of sugar in their tea rather than 2 teaspoons.
You can put information on a label, but until you put it into terms that people can quickly interpret, it’s really not very useful other than to dieticians or technical researchers.
Agree David.. Telling somebody that there is circa 13 spoons of sugar in a standard 330ml can of Coke is a tiny bit more informative that a calorie count or a RDA in %…
There was a great graphic doing the rounds. It showed the drinks and in bags underneath them, how much sugar was in them.
I can understand it because I’ve made myself aware of it. Like I think people should. Why would coke want you to understand and how bad for your their drink is? It would ruin them. The numbers are there for you, simple as that. It’s up to you to educate yourself or stay ignorant.
One can of coke ~= 2 Creme Eggs
I love cream eggs:)
I think if people aren’t bothered to learn a concept of nutrition as simple as calories and grams of sugar… we shouldn’t pander to their laziness and stupidity.
‘pandering to laziness and stupidity’ are nothing to do with what is good / bad communication.
Good communication = message is transmitted, received and understood.
Bad communication = message is transmitted, ignored / misunderstood.
Sometimes you have to just pander to laziness and stupidity as that’s how real people operate.
People intuitively understand everyday measures like spoons of sugar while they tend to just go ‘boring science stuff’ when they see %RDA / kcal / grams.
Ok David, here a question. How can you assume your teaspoon of sugar is the same measure as mine? I understand most teaspoons are the same size, but it can be argued that 1: not ALL are the same size. And 2: that even if they were all the same size, we need a way to show that everyone would have the same concept of what that size equated to. For example, I take one sugar in my tea, and you might take one also, but that doesn’t make it the same size as you might take one heaped teaspoon and I might shake mine off a little. But our opinion that it is one teaspoon remains. You get where I’m going here? I understand your point, but they can’t advertise ‘one teaspoon’ of sugar without specifying, how much is on the teaspoon. Which obviously means they need to tell you how many grams it is. It’s not as simple as writing one teaspoon for them, but it is simple for people to educate themselves about what they’re eating:)
Or in this case drinking:)
2 cream eggs + 1 can or coke = 1 fat b@stard.
Roz. First of all, congratulations for being able to work out all of this sugar content mumbo jumbo for yourself. What do you want… a biscuit?
Sedondly, seeing as you are so concerned about the volume of a teaspoon let me help you out. It is a recognized culinary measurement of (just under) 5ml. (However anyone would know that already if they ever had to give any oral medicine with one of those white plastic spoons).
1ml is appox equivalent to 1g. So when you hear someone refer to teaspoons of sugar in a soft drink, it should be equivalent to 5g measures.
So whether you heap your teaspoon when you put sugar in your tea in not relevant to the point being made by David Kelly. In fact, most people when they put “1 teaspoon of sugar” into their tea / coffee are putting in closer to 2 actual measures.
In fact all the more reason for educating people Roz. 39g of sugar in a can of Coke is just under 8 teaspoons. If people consider a heaped teaspoon to be a single teaspoon measure then they are in big trouble and this is justification enough for clarifying this matter to those who havent worked it out or dont bother to understand. People who want to understand the content will always care to make the effort but unfortunately many dont make the effort.
Food and drink labelling is not clear to many so dumbing it down to hammer home the point is necessary.
I know exactly how much 100g of sugar is. 100 grams.
How many teaspoons of sugar is that? How big is your teaspoon. A level teaspoon or a heaped teaspoon?
It’s a person’s responsibility to know what they eat and drink. The state does not have a responsibility to stop people from getting fat.
I agree with your point but the only thing is that the state and its taxpayers end up footing the bill. The state has to do something, maybe more labelling and education first off but a ban may be required.
Correct, the state has a responsibility to reduce its health bill as a result of obesity. Doing that by banning large drinks is akin to implanting everyone with monitors to make sure they’re not drinking too much fuzzy stuff.
Education! Awareness!
David you’re right. I agree that taxpayers do end up footing much of the bill for obesity related diseases, but the same could be said about illnesses caused by smoking and alcohol abuse. Yet while there are frequent health warnings about these products I don’t think an outright ban on them has ever been considered in this country.
It is wrong that the health costs of self-inflicted obesity end up being paid for by us healthy people through our taxes so perhaps a tax-break for healthy people is they way to go? If there was a real monetary advantage to being at a healthy weight less people would thoughtlessly pile on the pounds.
It’s not an outright ban on the drink we’re talking about. Merely the “handy” size it is sold in. One big gulp in your hand is easy to carry rather than two mediums. It’s the size they’re talking about, not the drink.
“Can’t buy a large? Ah sure I’ll just get a medium and a small then!”
Crisis averted.
No way you could carry both drinks, a large popcorn with hot butter, tacos and cheese and a packet of M&MS. You would need to have arms like an octopus. Stick with the large or you’ll drop something !
Banning large fizzy drinks is not going to reduce obesity, people craving sugar will get their fix no matter what, whether they buy two medium drinks or eat a box of donuts after their meal. Properly educating people about the dangers of eating high sugar foods/drinks and allowing them make the right decisions for themselves is the only realistic way to approach the problem.
NO.
They want to ban large drinks but not smoking or drinking. I am not in favour of any of these bans. If you want to do it you should be allowed.
What about the smoking ban? Smoking is still legal, but the places you can smoke is limited. This reduces the opportunities to smoke making it easier for people to break the habit. Can you think of an equivalent measure to tackle obesity?
Not in favour of curbing anyone drinking sugary drinks except maybe ban them in schools.
Oh for goodness sake! When are people going to realise that banning stuff is not always the answer. What happened to common sense and a little self discipline!
Prohibition has never worked, they need to make healthy food and drinks cheaper and start running nutrition classes in every school, not just in America, here too.
i hope they do prohibit them, then i can step in and make a massive fortune bootlegging red lemonade
Yes. The general public are too stupid to make decisions for themselves. We should all be subservient to our wise government overlords and let them tell us how to live our lives through legislation!
Why would they be banned? If you ban them in fast food outlets where do you stop. Do you ban shops from selling 2 ltr bottles? Do you put an age limit on who can buy large bottles? How many of us do polish off an extra large drink with a burger etc? We buy it but most of the time only half of it gets drank and we toss the rest.
“where do you stop.”
Eh, right there. That’s where they stopped. That’s the point at which you stop.
Just ban the large parents from providing them to their children, it’s child abuse to ply your kids with fizzy drinks and fast/convenience foods. It’s not the outlets problem and not right to dictate what adults do. I feel sorry for the kids though.
How in Gods name is feeding your children fast food considered child abuse???
Carl, I believe the feeling is that children chould be provided with a healthy balanced diet rather than being filled with fat.
Some of the little bloaters you see around won’t make it past 30 as their hearts will give out from having to haul that extra bulk about.
@Carl: I’m not talking about kids who are brought to McDonalds every once in a while. I’m talking about the kids who are fed McD’s, chipper, chinese etc, all topped off with a can of coke more often than not. I see it up where I live, I see the kids in the school where I used to work bringing, crisps, bars of chocolate, fizzy drinks and sometimes, sweets to school for lunch every day. How hard is it to make your kids a sandwich and give them a yoghurt and a piece of fruit for lunch? Some of the kids could barely run around the yard at lunchtime and that is bloody child abuse. They don’t ask to be born but can only eat what they’re given until they’re in a position to buy their own food and by that stage, the damage is done.
Well said Andrea, I find it pretty disturbing to see families at the supermarket checkout with a trolley full of processed food, jumbo bags of crisps, a few 2L’s of Coke 7up etc, the parents feeding their children with the worst kind of foods, which they’re more than likely going to continue eating into their adult lives. If that’s not child abuse, I don’t know what is.
And sometime a large drink can be cheaper than the smaller ones id rather share a large drink than pay for 2 smaller ones for instance if at the cinema
I just buy a can/bottle of coke in the spar on the way to the cinema!
Ya but some places you have to buy at venue happened me 2 times before once at cinema and 1 time at football match cinema they confiscated bags of popcorn and share size drink was told i could collect them after, same in was at football match stade de france searched goin in by security and all drinks etc were taken thrown by the nto a massive bin
@Joe ….next time hide them better. You can’t bring your own booze to a pub.
Cinemas wouldn’t exist if it wasnt for their tuck shops.
Penalty points and a big fine should be enough to save people from fizzy drinks.
Let’s ban chocolate, crisps, pizza’s, chips as well while we are here! It’s the obese people’s fault!
some Obesity at least – is genetic??.
Banning them is a bit nanny state. But definitely inform people about how much sugar is in them.
A 33cl can of coke has 8 teaspoons of sugar in it. So a 50cl bottle has 12 spoons of sugar in it. If you went out as a designated driver for the night and had 4 pub sized minerals (say 25cl each) you could be taking in 24 spoons of sugar. Holy God…. I really dont think people are realising just how much sugar is in soft drinks.
I think people look at contents on bottles, food etc and can see the quantity of sugar or salt in grammes on it and it doesn’t really hit them as to exactly how much they are taking in. The calories seems to be what most people really look at. So put the sugar and salt into some more tangiable context for those who do not get it.
All of this is contributing to obesity, diabeties, abscence from work, cost to the state etc.
Ah shag it .. I have convinced myself to change my mind…. Ban them… but where do you stop. If a ban were to come in for the likes of this you should not be able to buy a 2 litre of mineral in a supermarket either. That wont happen.
Cash is king , same reason smoking and drinking alcohol is not banned ,there’s money to be made profits far out weight any negative health effects
Banning something actually mkes it more popular – usually – and banning Alcohol was tried in US – with very good results for the Mafia – who I think would like lots of items to be banned – including the non prescribed drugs eg Marijana , Cocaine etc . Marijuana is now legal in some States in US – bad news for the Mafia . If all these drugs were legalised – the failed war on drugs money could be spent on something productive – and the CIA would need to find new sources of funding .
Alcohol is baned in Muslim countries – but penalties are harsh -.– might not go down too well here or in western world in general .
Jesus, everyone is talking about banning not working. Let’s be clear, they’re not talking about banning the drink, just restricting the size it can be sold in.
That is very different from banning.
We have a Unit system for Alcohol, why not do the same for normal drinks. But use an Energy Unit, example 25 cals = 1 Unit; set a standard like, anything above 4 energy units (100 calc) per drink is taxable. Bans are stupid, tax isn’t much better. But since we have to foot the medical bills anyway, might as well get some tax back at source.
Thats stupid, Tax, tax, tax. If they had an ugly tax you would be broke!
Thats a harsh comment green burqa. Come out from behind your cloak so that we can let the dog see the rabbit…. so to speak.
I will when you hatch
More “Nanny State” rubbish. Let any eejits that want to poison themselves by drinking gallons of that shite do it.
Why not tax the stuff? Could bring in millions.
We can’t get anything even close to the size of the double gulp over here, sadly.
Why not? Free choice has been the norm and obesity and all it’s expensive health needs is only rising. Seems some people need a nanny state.
“You can only have a large soft drink to dilute your alcohol in, otherwise it’s not good for you!”
“if you make it, they will come”
Unless they are banned, people will continue to drink them. Some people don’t bother to look at how much suger is inside.
Lower the price of water and higher the price of fizzy drinks.
simples
Its like refusing to serve someone a pint when they’re too drunk, but now you’re refusing to serve them because they are too fat
lol, have a weighing scales at checkout, “Sorry sir, you’re too fat to buy the 2lb big gulp. Becomes come again when you’re not obese.”
Banning large sodas. Yes or no? Yes or no?
I never do well with pop quizzes….
We have a right to choice ourselves and not be told what we an say, eat, drink or for the most part do.
why would banning drinks help, its not gonna change the unhealthy lifestyles of people who dont want to change, clear labelling of contents and calories might be better but many people just ignore those too, the only solution is to educate from an early age about risks of not taking care of your body
Along with providing education about the dangers and requiring better labeling, we can encourage sellers to offer healthier alternatives, especially for places that serve/sell to children. All the education in the world won’t do any good if an alternative product isn’t available.
Raise the retirement age, increase the junk food consumption and the government can make a fortune from not paying a penny out on pensions, ‘cos no bugger will live long enough to claim one.
The one thing that really struck me over here in the states is that there is a dedicated Bin for needles for diabetics in the toilets here in work…..says it all to me.
Lads lads hang on! There’s no point worrying about large bottles of coke until we sort out the rape epidemic on facebook! Supernanny Fidelma will sort this out once she arrests all the frapists and sexters. Only then will she have the time to cut the national standard size of drink cups and put a 2 hour timer on your Xbox to curb your obesity! Daleks at the pick n mix will point three of the 5 point plan against obesity
The problem isn’t the drinks it’s a combination of lack of education/understanding on what’s in them and in fast and convenience food in general. Better to educate kids and parents on where their food comes from, making good choices and how to cook using fresh ingredients. That, for me, would be more worthwhile in the curriculum than say Irish until leaving cert. It could be included in a PE/health education/ life skills class.
Nanny state people should be responsible for what they drink i think a large drink is fine in moderation
470ml drinks so thats 20ml of coke and 450ml of ice thats healthy..I think the fattnig part of the meal is the burger and fries..
Yeah. But at least after the burger and fries you feel full. The problem with buckets of coke is that it’s empty calories, you can drink all that sugar and not feel full. That’s what makes people fat from fizzy drinks.
What about pro choice
Unless you can also ban them in the home it’s rather pointless.
is a pint of lager / cider a large fizzy drink? why confine it to what kids drink?
bring on the red thumbs !
Wasn’t there talk a while back about lobbing a tax on soft drinks ?…
A large drink in Ireland in nearly all fast food outlets is 500ml only 30ml above the size they want to introduce in New York. The current large size in the US McDonald’s is 32fl oz or 946ml the medium is 21fl oz 621ml these are the two they want to ban so the new large would be in-line with what is already on sale in ireland.
Drink loads of coke get fat go on disability sweet deal
I like coke
Coke:
1) A fizzy cola drink
2) A prohibited narcotic
3) A coal by-product used as a solid fuel
Which coke would you like, and do you prefer a large one?
One work Diabetics, it’s going to bankrupt the health services. Ther is an epidemic in Ireland of type 2. Large quantities of fizzy drinks dose not help.
Diabetes Type 2 complications are the causes of the second biggest health cost in the US.
Trans fats in preserved packaged foods is the primary cause of Diabetes T2.
Reducing sugar intake is only dealing with the symptom and not the root cause.
No action on Trans Fats by those charged with protecting public health … now I wonder why?
Denmark and Switzerland have banned them Trans Fats. McDonalds have complied in Denmark.
I cured/reversed/solved my Diabetes Type 2 with “The Walnut Cure for DT2″.
Replaced all your Trans fats over a period and your insulin works as it should.
Between that and the alloxan used to bleach wheat flour to make it white..
Alloxan also happens to be what they inject lab animals with to destroy the islets of Langerhans (insulin making cells in the pancreas) in order to test diabetes drugs.. Is there residue in the flour? How much of this residue is needed to have the same effect on the human pancreas? How much “wheat flour” as opposed to “wholemeal wheat flour” do people consume?
Everything has to be cut in Ireland, coke today and air tomorrow, or better still put another tax on it.
Anyone who thinks that something needs to be banned so people who want it cant have it should get their heads checked. Bans dont stop anything, so let people make their own choices and suffer from them if they want. Just dont tell me what I can do and what I cant and superimpose it on me, only because you cant deal with your own lack of will and issues. I hope one day the world will be free of those who cant live without supervision and feel the need to be told what to do with themselves.
Too far, just too far, why is it always the negative proposal that lacks any creativity at all but instead is a blanket attempt to impact negatively on everyone’s lives and not just those who are causing the issue.
Banning anything does not work, there is too much proof of that in our society but stop the advertising towards kids and make the warning clear and distinct.
Absolutely! There should be a ban on anything that leads to people making a glutton of themselves.
Yes, to many fatties in ireland.
feck off
Take the sugar out completely and treat it like coffee and tea where you add your own sugar from a sachet.
People need to be able to control their levels of sugar, or if they slowly reduce them to ween themselves off.
Over time you really don’t notice when sugar is missing if you do it slowly.
the American drinks are about three to four times the size of European ones. we don’t have American sized drinks like they do. whoever wrote this article needs to check their facts
It needs to be presented graphically. Suggest regulated cup sizes which have an amount of the cup showing actual sugar in a heap proportional to the average content in the drink. Different drinks would require different cups of course .
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