Health Panel Talks About A Wider Food Ban

[BigBadBrian]

LINK
The board hand-picked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that must approve his ban of selling large sugar-filled drinks at restaurants might be looking at other targets.

The New York City Board of Health showed support for limiting sizes of sugary drinks at a Tuesday meeting in Queens. They agreed to start the process to formalize the large-drink ban by agreeing to start a six-week public comment period.

At the meeting, some of the members of board said they should be considering other limits on high-calorie foods.

One member, Bruce Vladeck, thinks limiting the sizes for movie theater popcorn should be considered.

"The popcorn isn't a whole lot better than the soda," Vladeck said.

Another board member thinks milk drinks should fall under the size limits.

"There are certainly milkshakes and milk-coffee beverages that have monstrous amounts of calories," said board member Dr. Joel Forman.

Mayor Bloomberg says the drink rules are an attempt to fight obesity in the city. It would limit food service establishments in the city from serving drinks bigger than 16 ounces but would allow refills.

The New York City Restaurant Association is fighting the proposal and is considering legal action of it goes into effect.

New York City voters oppose 51 - 46 percent Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on the sale of over-sized sugary soft drinks, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

[Satan]

Bloomberg is taking entirely the wrong approach here. He should be fighting High Fructose Corn Poison, not worrying about cup sizes.

Maybe he should talk to his Rabbi about it? The Rabbis managed to get Coca Cola to put actual sugar in Coke for at least one month out of the year for Passover. Maybe if they knew they could lose NYC permanently as a market, they would give up the mutant corn derivatives permanently.

[Satan]

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[BigBadBrian]

I realize these people mean well, but it won't stop if they get their way.

They'll be after your booze and tobacco next, people.

[jhale667]

bloomberg is taking entirely the wrong approach here. He should be fighting high fructose corn poison, not worrying about cup sizes.

What he said.

[DONNIEP]

I wonder just how much soda you actually get in a 16 ounce cup that's filled nearly full of ice to begin with... And the day that I can't buy the biggest goddamn overpriced bucket of popcorn I want will be when I stop going to the movies! Hell, I don't even eat that much of it while I'm sitting there but it's the principle of the whole thing.

[jhale667]

I wonder just how much soda you actually get in a 16 ounce cup that's filled nearly full of ice to begin with... And the day that I can't buy the biggest goddamn overpriced bucket of popcorn I want will be when I stop going to the movies! Hell, I don't even eat that much of it while I'm sitting there but it's the principle of the whole thing.

It's one thing to encourage healthy eating choices and another to mandate them, but with obesity as big a problem as it is in the US, I sort of understand the intent, and the sense of urgency. I didn't know that 20oz of soda was the equivalent of eating 22 packets of sugar, that's f*ing disgusting if you think about it...

[Seshmeister]

They just need to make suppliers mark the product, a lot of the problems are due to people just not knowing what they are getting.

It's slowly getting better here. I notice that McDonald's are now putting the calories up on the main menu boards.

I try to keep an eye on these things where I can because I don't want to 'waste' the calories on something I don't even like that much. For example I travel quite a bit sometimes and that means that you end up buying a lot of sandwiches. I'm always amazed at some of the crazy amounts of fat and calories you can find in a simple cheese and ham sandwich because they've maybe added some mayo.

If there are two and one is slightly less exciting but means that I can drink 4 beers as well for the same calories then that is a good thing to know.

Also do you think that the average person buying the 12 inch meatball from Subway knows that they were having the equivalent amount of salt as 18 bags of chips/crisps? I don't think so.

[Satan]

And in a related note, look what's new on the menu at Burger King........



Burger King Bacon Sundae Hits Summer Menu Along With Sweet Potato Fries, Pulled Pork Sandwich

06/12/12 04:32 PM ET AP


NEW YORK — Burger King wants to lure customers this summer with a barbecue party – and a bacon sundae.

The world's second biggest hamburger chain on Thursday is launching several pork, beef and chicken sandwiches as limited time offers. And for a sweet ending, the company is also offering a bacon sundae – vanilla soft serve with fudge, caramel, bacon crumbles and a piece of bacon – that started in Nashville, Tenn. earlier this year.

The salty-sweet dessert clocks in at 510 calories, 18 grams of fat and 61 grams of sugar.

The limited-time items are Burger King's latest push to win back customers with a revived menu and reverse sliding market share, an effort that started soon after the company was taken private by the private equity firm 3G Capital in late 2010.

Earlier this year, Burger King launched its biggest-ever menu expansion including fruit smoothies, snack wraps and new salads. The items were intended to go after a broader audience of moms and families, a shift from the chain's previous strategy of courting young men with calorie bombs.

Core menu items, such as French fries and the Whopper, have also been tweaked as part of the company's efforts to improve food quality. Burger King is trying to underscore its own focus on ingredients with a new tag line, "Taste Is King," which replaces "Have It Your Way." A new ad has been celebrating summer barbecues to highlight the chain's emphasis on fire-grilling burgers. The new summer items will be featured in ads starting Thursday.

This month, 3G plans to take Burger King public on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wendy's is also revamping its menu to improve ingredients and recast itself as a higher-end burger chain. The makeovers by the hamburger giants come at a time when the traditional fast-food chains are seeing more competition from smaller players such as Five Guys Burgers and Smashburger that offer higher-quality food and alternatives such as Subway.

Burger King isn't the only fast-food chain that's trying to draw attention with unusual offerings. Taco Bell earlier this year introduced its tacos with Doritos shells and a "nacho burrito" that includes corn chips.

The rest of Burger King's summer menu includes:

_Memphis Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich.

_Carolina BBQ Whopper or Chicken Sandwich.

_Texas BBQ Whopper or Chicken Sandwich.

_Sweet potato fries.

_Frozen Lemonade.

The items will be available through the summer or while supplies last.

Now the sweet potato fries are actually nominally healthier than the usual white potato version. But that's about the only encouraging news on this menu. I can only imagine how my Former Employer reacted to the news of this decidedly un-Kosher dessert item.

[ELVIS]

Does the average welfare mom know that most baby formula is nearly 50% corn syrup solids ??

[ELVIS]

*edit*

California welfare mom...

[Satan]

Does the average welfare mom know that most baby formula is nearly 50% corn syrup solids ??

Never mind the right wing talking point..... the real question should be, how many mothers of ANY economic status are aware of this fact?

(Of course the same thing applies to adults who put non-dairy creamer in their coffee. The old school shit like "coffee mate" or whatever. Though I guess you could easily substitute any of the more modern equivalents with the soy/rice/almond/coconut/hemp based "milk" beverages.)

[Seshmeister]

There is a 3 part BBC documentary starting this week looking at how we have been fucked over by corporate food.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jxzv8/The_Men_Who_Made_Us_Fat_Episode_1/

Around the world, obesity levels are rising. More people are now overweight than undernourished. Two thirds of British adults are overweight and one in four of us is classified as obese. In the first of this three-part series, Jacques Peretti traces those responsible for revolutionising our eating habits, to find out how decisions made in America 40 years ago influence the way we eat now.

Peretti travels to America to investigate the story of high-fructose corn syrup. The sweetener was championed in the US in the 1970s by Richard Nixon's agriculture secretary Earl Butz to make use of the excess corn grown by farmers. Cheaper and sweeter than sugar, it soon found its way into almost all processed foods and soft drinks. HFCS is not only sweeter than sugar, it also interferes with leptin, the hormone that controls appetite, so once you start eating or drinking it, you don't know when to stop.

Endocrinologist Robert Lustig was one of the first to recognise the dangers of HFCS but his findings were discredited at the time. Meanwhile a US Congress report blamed fat, not sugar, for the disturbing rise in cardio-vascular disease and the food industry responded with ranges of 'low fat', 'heart healthy' products in which the fat was removed - but the substitute was yet more sugar.

Meanwhile, in 1970s Britain, food manufacturers used advertising campaigns to promote the idea of snacking between meals. Outside the home, fast food chains offered clean, bright premises with tempting burgers cooked and served with a very un-British zeal and efficiency. Twenty years after the arrival of McDonalds, the number of fast food outlets in Britain had quadrupled.

The corn syrup seems to be particularly cynical piece of shit bit of work done to the US population.

I heard someone say once that you can eat as much fast food as you want as long as you make it yourself. I think that's a bit of an exaggeration but there is some truth in it.

Kind of like smoking cigarettes stuff that is a bit bad for you is made much worse by industrial processes which add shit to increase profits.

[ELVIS]

Never mind the right wing talking point....

What talking point ??

The government has no business or authority to tell people what not to eat drink or smoke...

[Satan]

What talking point ??

The government has no business or authority to tell people what not to eat drink or smoke...

The right wing talking point was to assume that only "California welfare mothers" would be ignorant enough to feed mutant corn poison to their babies.