One of the things that drives you absolutely nuts, if you are sensitive at all to the way America eats and drinks, is regular colas, sports drinks and hyper sweetened coffee. They are sugar bombs, pure and simple, and just God-awful for us. And yet, of course, they are driven by vast commercial forces and seem impregnable.
Not quite: the super-liberal town of Berkeley is the first city to tax sugar drinks like Coke and most sports drinks (one of the great scams…calling these sugar pops “sports drinks”).
They tax ’em at one cent an ounce.
The result consumption of sugar drinks is *down a whopping 21%*. While it is up 4% in other cities nearby. Hooray. And water consumption is up 63%!
I am mighty slow to back government regulation of what we eat, but this situation is so awful that it’s exactly the right thing to do. You may hate the government – a lot of us seem to these days – but only government is big enough to fight Big Food.
And Big Food is killing us. For money. So tax the suckers.
BTW our *Thinner This Year* is still very much around and a great source on all this stuff.
Chris
Chris,
It’s not just sodas and sports drinks, its juices too. And diet sodas are just as bad!
Actually it has been added to almost all processed foods. It is truly ridiculous.
The only thing I disagree with is that big government is the answer. The best way to fight big food is us, the consumers. We need to continue to educate and get the word out how bad sugar is for us.
There is one are that government needs to be involved. Eliminate the ability to purchase sugar drinks with EBT benefits. I don’t know the true numbers and I know the government and the sugar drink companies don’t want us to know but that market has to be well into the billions.
My .2 cents.
Keep up the great work!
Rob
forgive the delay, Robb, and thanks. chris
Dear Chris: Thank you for this important reminder to caution us about regulating intake of sugar. As someone who tends towards low blood sugar, aka- hypoglycemic- I spent a lot of time in my youth trying to get a handle on a diet that wouldn’t create major blood sugar swings. It’s so true that our North American diet is overloaded with the added “white death”! A diet higher in lean protein and complex-carbs, plus “alive” food (as opposed to the dead food you and Jen talk about in “Thinner Next Year”) has helped. Just became a member of your site today, and I wanted to thank you and Henry for writing “Younger Next Year”. Your heart rate info has changed my workouts and I lost 15lbs over 6 months. The wrist band heart rate monitor was the best Christmas present my family gave me last year! As a 40+ woman, I also bought Gail Sheehy’s books and love them! I’ve just worked my way through “Thinner This Year.” The information is invaluable. Just started triathalons this summer (only try-a-tri, but think I’ll up in to Sprint – thanks for the kedge advice) and I’m really taken with the idea of the “glass box”. In fact, you scared the heck out of me regarding loss of movement with age! So I’ve started your’s and Bill’s exercises and many are much harder than they look! Thanks! Jennifer Baron
Thanks Jennifer. And nice going! Chris