NYC Soda Ban Upheld by Health Board

A new low for government intervention has been ratified.

Mayor Bloomberg received approval from the NYC Health Board to ban sodas, sweetened teas and juices in sizes bigger than 16 oz.  A nod to Ron for sending the article along to me.

As I mentioned when I wrote about this earlier, I don’t actually drink a lot of soda.  But, this is so far overreaching, it just doesn’t make any sense.  Apparently, convenience stores like 7-Eleven must have better lobbyists because the ban doesn’t cover your Big Gulp, just your bottle and fountain beverages at places like restaurants, movie theaters and street vendors.

Oh, and stadiums.  Yup.  You know, Yankee Stadium serves some premium microbrews in 16 oz. bottles as opposed to the 12 oz draft pours.  Maybe they should outlaw the 16 oz. beer as well since that surely must be as bad for you as a soda.

The problem with a law like this is it unfairly affects some companies more than others.  Arizona Tea, for example, sells a number of products onlyin a 23 oz. size.  Doesn’t matter that some of those products are iced tea with ginseng and honey.  It’s also sweetened with sugar, so it must be likely to kill you, at least according to Bloomberg and the 11 yes-men (and women) he appointed to the health board.

Maybe Bloomberg should spend more time focusing on getting kids to graduate from high school.  He spends time telling people how great it is that the graduation rates in NYC are up to 66 percent, event though that’s almost 10% lower then the national average.  But, hey, at least we won’t have obese uneducated people on the streets.