The city that never sleeps might finally get some rest because of the reduction in caffeine from their soda and coffee. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is superman in disguise trying to save the city’s population from obesity. On May 30, 2012, Bloomberg proposed the banning of beverages more than 16 ounces in size at eating establishments. Not only would restaurants in New York be affected, but movie theaters, street food carts, and sports arenas, too. Sugary sodas greater than 16 ounces would be gone and so would sweetened tea, coffees, fruit juices, milk shakes, and alcoholic beverages. The public outcry will be the toughest hurdle for the mayor to jump. If the proposal is approved by the Board of Health then all sugary beverages with more than 16 ounces will be banned from New York City.
Mayor Bloomberg has a history of obesity-fighting proposals. His efforts to make the city healthier have always been met with debate and controversy, and often succeed. Mary Hartley, RD, a NYC resident and our dietitian, noted the ban on artificial trans fats in the city. She also praised the Mayor’s actions to ban smoking, calling it “most remarkable.”
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Last October, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture prevent New York residents from using food stamps to purchase soda and other sugary drinks. On Friday, the USDA rejected the proposal, partly citing the difficulty of sorting out which beverages would and wouldn’t be allowed under the policy.
Dr. Thomas A. Farley, New York City’s health commissioner, said he was “very upset” by the proposal’s rejection, adding that it “really calls into question how serious the USDA is about addressing the nation’s most serious nutritional problem,” reports the New York Times.
The choice was obviously a victory for the soda industry, which lobbied against the proposal. Some advocates for the poor were also against the bill, arguing that forcing food-stamp users to shop differently is a stigmatizing experience. “The whole attempt was misguided and unworkable,” Mr. Berg said. “This proposal was based on the false assumption that poor people were somehow ignorant or culturally deficient.”
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Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill that will encourage city agencies to purchase more locally grown food, and another to reduce wasteful packaging. According to WNYC, the bill will includes foods that are grown, produced and processed in New York.
“These provisions will help the city and the public better track where agencies’ food comes from and where tax dollars are spent,” Bloomberg said. “It will also result in agencies buying much more food from farms and processing facilities in the Empire State.”
The law further requires that an annual report to be published on the food the city buys. Earlier this summer, City Council became the first city government to participate in a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. “It may cost a tiny bit more, but it saves money in the end because it can stay longer in the schools. It can stay longer in the person’s home, and it’s fresher,” Manhattan City Councilwoman Gale Brewer told NY1.
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In the latest push to get New Yorkers to eat better, city Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking on salt. The mayor previously launched several visceral attacks on sodas and other sugary beverages. Now, he’s urging city residents to cut down on their intake of sodium. The new campaign targets frozen dinners and canned soups, and features images of these foods surrounded by heaps of salt. The images are accompanied by messages like “Excessive can lead to heart attack and stroke.”
Excess salt in one’s diet can potentially lead to a number of serious health conditions, like high blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions. WPIX reports that 23,000 deaths are caused by cardiovascular-related conditions in New York City alone.
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The United States Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more popularly known as the Food Stamp Program, was used by more than 41 million people in July 2010. Those are record levels during one of the more trying times in our country’s history.
Considering the fact that this means more than 10 percent of our citizens are on the public aid program, what people purchase with their food stamp assistance has become a bit of a hot topic in public discourse.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is advocating a ban on his city’s 1.7 million recipients of food stamps from using them to buy soda or other sugary drinks. That request for federal permission, made earlier this month, has its merits and should be considered.
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