New York City seeks to ban big sodas

I find it sad that people would intentionally ingest things so incredibly horrible for them. Soda is sugar or chemicals and water. Other than the fact that it contains water, it has absolutely no redeeming qualities. It just serves to drive up obesity rates by encouraging people to ingest massive amounts of empty calories that do not get burned off.

Having said that, I'm not a big fan of the government telling me I can't do something that is only affecting my health. There's no "secondhand sugar" to debate, this is a matter of personal responsibility, plain and simple.

I understand, but to me, this isn't a "I should be able to do whatever I want issue" but it is different, subtley different.

It's telling manufacturers to stop making *kitten* products. I also get a little weary of people discounting advertising and it's affect on the people that consume that crap. The effect is huge. There is a reason why the larest portion of a companies budget is marketing and advertising. And, there is a reason why a company will pay big time money to be a large ad at a sporting event. If it didn't matter, like people always say, and shrug their shoulders and say, "it doesn't affect me:. Yeah right. OK, here's a challenge for all of you...today, for the rest of the day, count everytime you see or hear an ad. Every single time. POP up ads, billboards, radio ads, all of it. I bet you would get into the 5 digits. I forget what the statistic is, but it's insane. And, this is every single day. We're all brain washed without even realizing. There are kids, upper teens now, who go on family vacations somewhere away from radios, TV's and all that, and they actually experience real depression. It's because they are feeling a lack of stimuli that they are used to, and they don't know how to handle it. It's very sad. I could write about this forever. I'm very passionate about this topic.

We don't really have free markets anyway, in case you haven't noticed lately.

NYC does have a big coke problem.. hah hah hah...

I think this is essentially useless. People will end up getting refills anyway. What NYC needs to do allow for consumers to have more fountain beverage options such as flavored waters/ carbonated waters/ coconut water. While I wouldn't call substitute sugared drinks healthy in a good for you sense, but for calorie conscious consumers it's a better option. Personally I have always been a water drinker so this does't affect me, but for the millions of new yorkers who will be affected I think this is useless.

Some of the sizes of drinks you order these days is ridiculous, I mean, a "medium" is 32 oz? Really?

Bloomberg may be well intentioned but who will police it, and also, what about diet drinks? You can order a 32 oz diet soda but not a regular one?

If people want to ruin their health by smoking, or drinking soft drinks full of empty calories, it's their body. Theoretically it's a free country, let them.