Editorial: All shook up
The most-populous city in the U.S. has a liter-sized problem, according to the city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg’s ongoing campaign to fight obesity, which targets more than half of the adults in New York City, has gone from asking for salt restrictions to proposing a 2-year plan to ban using federally distributed food stamps on sugar-sweetened drinks, like soda. The federal food stamp program, which has been around since the ’60s, currently bans using food stamps for cigarettes, alcohol and prepared foods, like deli and bakery sandwiches. And while there is certainly some merit to thinking Bloomberg has no business doing your Dew or telling you where to spend your stamps, there is some merit to his effort. Over the last 30 years, the consumption of sugary drinks, like soda, have more than doubled, and Bloomberg’s proposed 2-year ban on food stamps for the popular beverages aims to attack the connection between consuming high levels of sugar and the development of type-2 diabetes. The climbing levels of obesity and the resulting health effects are certainly frightening for America’s future.