Big Mikey Bloombergs Hilariously bad debate Night part 1 (NSFW)

Mayor Midge 💅🏽 thought he could just pop out the black MasterCard and put that election on layaway; after all, "Those clever coons can do it; why can't I?!?"

Oh, Midge 💅🏽...you CANNOT PURCHASE WHAT I AND MANY OTHERS POSSESS...EVER.

It's called #LOGOS.

Michael Bloomberg Can't Be a Real Candidate | Shakes a Dog's Mouth??! (NSFW)

Mayor Mikey's accomplishments:

• Bars no longer smell like ashtrays; however, everything outside of one does
• $100,000,000.00 paid to advertising firms at least for each term served
• Successfully beat a zombie candidate "Sleeping" Bill Thompson
• Bought an unprecedented THIRD TERM AS MAYOR, then RAN TO WARMER CLIMES IN 2010 DURING A SNOWSTORM

Mazel tov, asshat.

Why Hizzoner's Sugary Drink Ban Is Simply A Money Grab For The Soda Companies (R8 Re-Post)

Why Hizzoner's Sugary Drink Ban Is Simply A Money Grab For The Soda Companies

posted by Vincent Nunes
Fri, 07/20/2012 - 3:15am

I hope everyone's enjoying their summer.
Before I begin, let's revisit the subject of this story:

New York Plans to Ban Sale of Big Sizes of Sugary Drinks

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Wednesday with Linda I. Gibbs, deputy mayor for health, as he discussed a plan to ban large sugary beverages. Next to each soda is the amount of sugar in it.

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Published: May 30, 2012

New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity.

Reactions to Big Sugary Drinks Ban

What Else Should the Mayor Ban?

City Room

With supersize soft drinks facing prohibition, we seek your suggestions for other vices the Bloomberg Administration should outlaw.

Graphic: Sweet Limits

A guide to what restaurants, movie theaters and food carts could sell under the ban.

Connect with NYTMetro

The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.
The measure would not apply to diet sodas, fruit juices, dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, or alcoholic beverages; it would not extend to beverages sold in grocery stores or convenience stores.
“Obesity is a nationwide problem, and all over the United States, public health officials are wringing their hands saying, ‘Oh, this is terrible,’ ” Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview on Wednesday in City Hall’s sprawling Governor’s Room.
“New York City is not about wringing your hands; it’s about doing something,” he said. “I think that’s what the public wants the mayor to do.”
A spokesman for the New York City Beverage Association, an arm of the soda industry’s national trade group, criticized the city’s proposal on Wednesday. The industry has clashed repeatedly with the city’s health department, saying it has unfairly singled out soda; industry groups have bought subway advertisements promoting their cause.
“The New York City health department’s unhealthy obsession with attacking soft drinks is again pushing them over the top,” the industry spokesman, Stefan Friedman, said. “It’s time for serious health professionals to move on and seek solutions that are going to actually curb obesity. These zealous proposals just distract from the hard work that needs to be done on this front.”
Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal requires the approval of the Board of Health, a step that is considered likely because the members are all appointed by him, and the board’s chairman is the city’s health commissioner, who joined the mayor in supporting the measure on Wednesday.
Mr. Bloomberg has made public health one of the top priorities of his lengthy tenure, and has championed a series of aggressive regulations, including bans on smoking in restaurants and parks, a prohibition against artificial trans fat in restaurant food and a requirement for health inspection grades to be posted in restaurant windows.
The measures have led to occasional derision of the mayor as Nanny Bloomberg, by those who view the restrictions as infringements on personal freedom. But many of the measures adopted in New York have become models for other cities, including restrictions on smoking and trans fats, as well as the use of graphic advertising to combat smoking and soda consumption, and the demand that chain restaurants post calorie contents next to prices.
In recent years, soda has emerged as a battleground in efforts to counter obesity. Across the nation, some school districts have banned the sale of soda in schools, and some cities have banned the sale of soda in public buildings.
In New York City, where more than half of adults are obese or overweight, Dr. Thomas Farley, the health commissioner, blames sweetened drinks for up to half of the increase in city obesity rates over the last 30 years. About a third of New Yorkers drink one or more sugary drinks a day, according to the city. Dr. Farley said the city had seen higher obesity rates in neighborhoods where soda consumption was more common.
The ban would not apply to drinks with fewer than 25 calories per 8-ounce serving, like zero-calorie Vitamin Waters and unsweetened iced teas, as well as diet sodas.
Restaurants, delis, movie theater and ballpark concessions would be affected, because they are regulated by the health department. Carts on sidewalks and in Central Park would also be included, but not vending machines or newsstands that serve only a smattering of fresh food items.
At fast-food chains, where sodas are often dispersed at self-serve fountains, restaurants would be required to hand out cup sizes of 16 ounces or less, regardless of whether a customer opts for a diet drink. But free refills — and additional drink purchases — would be allowed.
Corner stores and bodegas would be affected if they are defined by the city as “food service establishments.” Those stores can most easily be identified by the health department letter grades they are required to display in their windows.
The mayor, who said he occasionally drank a diet soda “on a hot day,” contested the idea that the plan would limit consumers’ choices, saying the option to buy more soda would always be available.
“Your argument, I guess, could be that it’s a little less convenient to have to carry two 16-ounce drinks to your seat in the movie theater rather than one 32 ounce,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a sarcastic tone. “I don’t think you can make the case that we’re taking things away.”
He also said he foresaw no adverse effect on local businesses, and he suggested that restaurants could simply charge more for smaller drinks if their sales were to drop.
The Bloomberg administration had made previous, unsuccessful efforts to make soda consumption less appealing. The mayor supported a state tax on sodas, but the measure died in Albany, and he tried to restrict the use of food stamps to buy sodas, but the idea was rejected by federal regulators.
With the new proposal, City Hall is now trying to see how much it can accomplish without requiring outside approval. Mayoral aides say they are confident that they have the legal authority to restrict soda sales, based on the city’s jurisdiction over local eating establishments, the same oversight that allows for the health department’s letter-grade cleanliness rating system for restaurants.
In interviews at the AMC Loews Village, in the East Village in Manhattan, some filmgoers said restricting large soda sales made sense to them.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Sara Gochenauer, 21, a personal assistant from the Upper West Side. Soda, she said, “rots your teeth.”
But others said consumers should be free to choose.
“If people want to drink 24 ounces, it’s their decision,” said Zara Atal, 20, a college student from the Upper East Side.
Lawrence Goins, 50, a postal worker who lives in Newark, took a more pragmatic approach.
“Some of those movies are three, three and a half hours long,” Mr. Goins said. “You got to quench your thirst.”

Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.

Readers’ Comments

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All of the rhetoric sounds fine and dandy, but does it truly address the issue of OBESITY?
The current epidemic of obesity did not begin until high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) replaced sugar in our soft drinks.
Here's the facts, dear readers - HFCS turns directly into FAT once ingested.
Let's repeat that:
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (HFCS) IS NOT METABOLIZED ONCE INGESTED; IT TURNS DIRECTLY INTO FAT.
Sugar isn't much better, but for those who regularly exercise and note their sugar intake, it isn't an issue.
I recently lost 112 pounds. I still avoid sodas like the plague. I, however, know better than to arbitrarily decide for everyone that no one else can have soda.
If you go to a supermarket, you readily see 2/3-liter bottles of soda. They are priced similarly to the cold 20-ounce sodas you can get at your convenience store.
You don't see any problem here?
The soda companies would love to phase out those huge bottles. Think of the profit margin.
The soda ban totally misses the issue of obesity.
How about we remove HFCS from sodas and instead...use STEVIA?
I've tried it - it's good. No calories. No need to mark sodas as "diet".
Just like that, we could wipe out obesity in New York City in a matter of months.
Snapple is marketing a "lightly sweetened" tea; Pepsi Next is reported to have 60% less sugar. Those are steps in the right direction, but why take baby steps? Let's make the logical leap.
Let's do something to truly affect obesity. Maybe we could get McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, White Castle, etc., to follow this example.
Maybe then, Dominic Carter and I can enjoy a shake every once in a while.

Artificial sweeteners linked to obesity epidemic, scientists say - CBCNews

 If any of you were readers of my Room Eight blog, you will know that I regularly took former NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to task for claiming to want to deal with obesity; yet, not going after the main cause of said obesity - high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS.


He didn't have a problem with artificial sweeteners, and yet, here we are, finding out that it is yet but another cause of obesity:

Artificial sweeteners may exacerbate, rather than prevent, metabolic disorders such as Type 2 diabetes, a study suggests.
Calorie-free artificial sweeteners are often chosen by dieters in part because they are thought not to raise blood sugar levels.
In Wednesday’s issue of the journal Nature, researchers report that artificial sweeteners increase the blood sugar levels in both mice and humans by interfering with microbes in the gut. Increased blood sugar levels are an early indicator of Type 2 diabetes and metabolic disease.
The increase in consumption of artificial sweeteners coincides with the obesity and diabetes epidemics, Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and his co-authors said.
"Our findings suggest that non-caloric artificial sweeteners may have directly contributed to enhancing the exact epidemic that they themselves were intended to fight."

Link to gut bacteria

The study included a series of experiments.
Mice whose drinking water was supplemented with glucose and a sweetener developed glucose intolerance compared with mice drinking water alone, or water with just sugar in it. The effect occurred both in mice fed normal chow and those on a high-fat diet.
When antibiotics were used to kill off gut bacteria, the artificial sweetener effect on glucose intolerance in mice fed either diet was restored to normal.
Taken together, the data indicate that artificial sweeteners "may contribute to, rather than alleviate, obesity-related metabolic conditions, by altering the composition and function of bacterial populations in the gut," Cathryn Nagler and Taylor Feehley of the pathology department at the University of Chicago said in a journal commentary.
In the human part of the research, gut bacteria were analyzed from 381 non-diabetics averaging age 43 who were participating in an ongoing nutrition study.  They found differences in the gut bacteria among those who consumed artificial sweeteners compared with those who did not.
Artificial sweetener consumers showed "markers" for diabetes, such as raised blood sugar levels and glucose intolerance.

More research needed

In the final portion of the study, seven human volunteers who didn’t normally consume artificial sweeteners added it to their diets for seven days. After four days, blood glucose levels rose and the makeup of their gut bacteria changed in half of the participants, just as in the mice experiment.
To confirm the findings, the researchers also transferred feces from people who consume artificial sweeteners into mice that were bred to have sterile intestines and never consumed it before. The mice who had saccharin became glucose intolerant, which suggests that the artificial sweetener caused the unhealthy effect.
It could be that artificial sweeteners lead to an expansion of bacterial species that extract energy from food that often gets stored as fat, contributing to obesity, Nagler said. It's also possible the sweeteners could suppress the growth of other bacteria that seem to stave off insulin resistance, she said.
The commentators suggested studies to identify specific bacterial populations that promote resistance to weight gain or improve glucose tolerance could be useful as treatments.
Other experts who were not involved in the research called the findings intriguing, but noted that the human findings in particular were very preliminary in terms of considering changes to nutrition recommendations.
"This research raises caution that [non-caloric artificial sweeteners] may not represent the 'innocent magic bullet' they were intended to be to help with the obesity and diabetes epidemics, but it does not yet provide sufficient evidence to alter public health and clinical practice," said Nita Forouhi, program leader at the Medical Research Council's epidemiology unit at Cambridge University.