(MintPress) – New York City has proposed a new way to combat obesity in the city by imposing a ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks.
If passed, the ban would not allow movie theaters, restaurants, sports venues or street cars to sell sweetened drinks larger than 16 ounces.
Diet sodas, fruit juices, dairy-based drinks and alcoholic beverages are not included in the ban. Drinks that are sold in grocery or convenience stores would also not be affected.
Companies that do not follow the rule would be fined $200.
While New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he believes this step is something the public wants, opponents say the government should shift the focus to find solutions that will prevent and otherwise reduce obesity.
During Bloomberg’s three terms in office, campaigns to fight obesity have been prominent, including prohibiting trans-fats in restaurant food and mandating that chain restaurants provide calorie counts on menus.
Soda has previously been targeted by the Bloomberg administration with support garnered for a state-wide tax on the sweetened drinks. However, the proposed tax died in Albany.
Additionally, Bloomberg pushed for restrictions on food stamps, barring their use to buy sodas. Federal regulators rejected that idea.
Soon after the ban was proposed, soda companies, including Coca Cola, spoke out against the rule, saying that New Yorkers should not support the proposition, citing that it is the public’s right to be able to choose what it drinks.
John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, stated that Bloomberg’s proposal is not in the interest of New York residents and that calories consumed from soft drinks have declined more than 20 percent in the last decade.
While researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill found that there has been, in fact, a 20 percent drop in calories consumed, it is not because Americans are drinking less soda. Instead, the decreased amount of calories comes from research showing that in the country, there are more residents opting to drink diet soda, which has little or no calories, rather than drinking regular soda.
According to the Mayo Clinic, however, the consumption rate is still staggeringly higher than it was 30 years ago.
“Soda was once considered an occasional treat, but consumption has steadily increased over the last three decades,” the Mayo Clinic website states. “Many Americans drink soda every day. Demand is so great that manufacturers produce enough soda to supply the average man, woman and child in American with more than 52 gallons each year.”
While many advocates of healthy living think this is a step in the right direction, there is some hesitation as to how much influence the ban will have.
“This is an approach that I think would help fight the obesity epidemic, but we’ll have to do many such things in order to reverse the epidemic,” said Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
Public health statistics cited by Bloomberg shows that 58 percent of adults in New York City and nearly 40 percent of public school students in the city are overweight or obese.
Approval by the city’s Board of Health is required before the ban can pass. The proposal will be submitted to the board on June 12.