Why Bloomberg Is Wrong About Soda

No doubt you have read about Mayor Bloomberg trying to regulate the size of soda in New York City. As emotional as this subject is, I wanted to share some thoughts. This will be short (and sweet for all you soda lovers). Well, maybe.

If you haven't read up on Nanny Bloomberg's latest plans to regulate something in the lives of New Yorkers, you can read it here. The quick summary is that Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban the sale of large size sugary drinks to tackle the growing problem of obesity. Nothing larger than 16 oz. The ban would not include "diet" sodas, fruit juices, dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, or alcoholic beverages.

My take: stupid stupid stupid.

I'm not going to get into everything that is wrong with this maniac's track record of trying to control people's lives, from banning salt in New York City restaurants to his war on tobacco. He dropped $500,000 in support of California's Prop 29 which called for a new tax of $1 on all tobacco products in order to fund cancer research. California defeated that proposal on Tuesday narrowly. And Bloomberg has been on record stating he wants to ban smoking worldwide. This dictatorial behavior merits a whole blog series by itself, but thats not why I'm calling this latest stance stupid.

My issue with Mayor Bloomberg's proposal is that like most everything government regulates, it doesn't begin to address the core problem. Obesity is a real issue we face worldwide. I should know, I weighed 355 lbs just 5 years ago. Banning large bottles of soda doesn't address the root cause of why 8 year old kids now weigh 150 lbs. Bloomberg's proposal is nothing more than the proverbial bandaid on a disease that is and will kill more human beings in the next 50 years than cancer.

In the most basic of terms, the problem with obesity lies with our entire food supply and the individual choices we make. It goes beyond calories and what we eat and drink. The root of obesity lies in the combination of nutrition and exercise. More precisely, a lack thereof.

In the 1970s the UN warned of a world-wide food shortage to support the growing population of the world by the year 2000. There simply wasn't enough agriculture and farming to support the huge number of birthrates expected over the coming 30 years. Food shortage was the 1970s version of Al Gore's Global Warming. This fear influenced the world's food production and the innovators went to work on solving the problem, coming up with genetically modified produce, the introduction of various hormones and chemicals for increasing crops and livestock, and various other methods of preserving foods, ingredients and taste.

To give you a simple example of the repercussions, in the 1970s and 80s we had over 3000 kinds of apples grown around the world. Most were not pretty to look at, but they tasted great. Today you basically have 5 or 6 varieties in most super markets, and they are all picture perfect. We came up with ways to modify nature to tackle the perceived fear of food shortage, but also to increase sales worldwide. There are hundreds of other examples too, from the steaks served by chain restaurants, to the potatoes used by potato chip companies to the ingredients of fast foods.

All of these efforts have replaced the basic nutrition of a food product with some form of processed chemical. This has led to a number important changes that, when brought together, are the basic cause behind obesity:

1) the human body is not receiving the basic nutrition, minerals and enzymes it needs to operate - think a car with watered down fuel;
2) the lack of enough nutrition, minerals and enzymes results in your body not being satisfied with 'normal' portions of food, hence the increase in consumption (and calories) that have resulted in the average human being eating 4 times more food than a person living in the 60s;
3) the chemicals and processing agents that have replaced nutrition in the food supply are interpreted by the body as foreign agents which it doesn't recognize. In short, they are toxins. And the body doesn't know what to do with these toxins, so depending on your individual metabolism and genetic make-up, its harder and harder for your body to process these toxins. The 'easier' solution is to just store these toxins in the body, and that means storing them in fat cells. Thats why obese people are not proportionally big, but rather deformed i.e. huge legs, huge butts, huge arms etc.;
4) without enough nutrition the body can't function at its potential, hence the drop in exercise, movement and burning of energy (calories). We feel tired, we don't sleep well, we can't be bothered to get off the couch and toss a ball around with the kids, so we sit in front of the TV and watch mindless programs all day. Its all caused by lack of nutrition;
5) the lack of nutrients, minerals and enzymes are believed to be key contributors to the weakening of immune systems and creating the perfect environment for cancer and disease - I have not seen the research on this so don't take my words as fact, but it makes a lot of sense to me that when you pollute the pond the fish die and all kinds of nasty shit thrives.

So when I hear ideas like Mayor Bloomberg's that try to tackle the problem ass-backwards, I can't help but to think how stupid our officials really are, or is it a case of how stupid our officials think we are? "Oh look, the Mayor is looking out for my wellbeing, I think I'll vote for him again." Mr. Bloomberg is not a stupid man, far from it, and I believe his intentions are good, but you can basically say that about everyone in government. It doesn't make a flawed idea any less flawed.

I'll end this rant with a few thoughts on solutions for obesity. My road to losing 155 lbs and keeping it off for 5 years was based first and foremost on admitting that I alone am responsible for my predicament, no one else. Its not the food companies, its not genetics or because "I'm big boned" (really???), and it certainly isn't the government's job to look out for me. Every individual makes choices everyday and those choices have repercussions. They are the difference between being happy and unhappy, successful and poor, healthy or obese. If we take the responsibility away from the individual and make it government's job then we are basically doomed.

As a final note - anyone who wants to learn more about wellness and tackling their health challenges please drop me a line. I'd be happy to speak to you.