The New York City Board of Health today banned the sale of super-sized sugary drinks including sodas at restaurants and several other fast-food venues. Mayo Clinic obesity expert Donald Hensrud, M.D., says the ban is reasonable.
“Understandably, people don’t like being told what to eat, but a limit like that isn’t unreasonable,” says Dr. Hensrud, chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine at Mayo Clinic. “Regular soda is a triple whammy, so to speak. It’s extra calories, there’s no nutritional value at all, and it may displace other foods that are healthier. There’s no real downside here.”
“There’s pretty good suggestive data that it does influence people’s weight, because of the high calorie density,” Dr. Hensrud says of the sugary drinks. “You can get a lot of calories and not realize it.”
Journalists: To interview Dr. Hensrud, please contact Sharon Theimer in Mayo Clinic Public Affairs at 507-284-5005 or by email at newsbureau@mayo.edu.
While I agree that these sugary drinks are a large factor in the explosion of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, once again we are allowing government to dictate to us instead of being personally responsible for our behavior. Not only does it infringe on the freedom to make our own choices, it says that the government knows better than we do what is good for us. More government is never the solution. As long as we refuse to be held accountable for our choices good or bad we will have government in our faces. Doctor, you should realize this with the big fiasco of Obamacare. Will you enjoy being told how to treat your patients? I don’t want to be saved from myself.