Vestril said:

I'm not for banning it, but I'd definitely be for taxing the shit out of non-diet pop to pay for tax breaks or cheaper health care for people at the bottom of the income brackets. The tax would, I can only hope, dis-incentivize non-diet pop, maybe convince more people to drink juice or water or diet. I'm not sure how the tax would work, maybe based on sugar content of the drink. Gah.

If you're going after soda, then we need to go after "fruit juices" (they are all sugar) and just about everything with sweetened with corn syrup.

How about chocolate?

Look I hear that you want to make people take responsibility for their behavior, but you are going to have to draw some pretty arbitary lines here.

R0nin

Chicago, IL

October 2005

NOV 18, 2006 11:38 AM

I've had my own business for the better part of the last 5 years and therefore have to pay for my own healthcare. I also have what these insurance companies consider to be a pre existing condition, so It's extremely difficult for me to find affordable healthcare to begin with. Some months I find myself working extra hours and taking on a few side projects just to cover the ridiculously high cost of my health insurance (almost $700 a month!) and I think that's insane. Why is it that when we live in a country with the means to provide every man, woman, and child with FREE HEALTHCARE... WE DON'T DO IT?!?!?!?!

When I consider the amount of money I've paid in the last 5 years, compared to the services I've received for paying so much, I get sick to my stomach! Have you ever really looked at your hospital/emergency room bill? If you have, you've seen things like $30 for a fucking asprin that I can go to CVS and buy a bottle of for about $6.50!!

NickFaust Said:

Frankly, I think we ought to simply have catastrophic care insurance and everything else should come out of pocket. That would really bring the docs and hospitals back to earth. But that will never happen, cause the AMA and AHA lobby groups are as powerful as the insurance lobby.

Wouldn't that be fucking nice! In my opinion insurance is nothing more than legalized extortion, but we continue to allow the medical industry to charge these ridiculous rates, therefore making insurance companies a necessity. When will we stop allowing it to happen? perhaps I'm living in a fantasy world.. I dunno.. I think my reality check bounced..

Vestril

Coronado, CA

February 2003

NOV 18, 2006 12:06 PM

NickFaust said:

That's a really good point, but it seems like those same sort of arbitrary lines are drawn all the time in insurance practice. The best example I have is the 25 year line for my car insurance rates. Why wasn't it 24 or 26? people love 5, it's the "halfway" point, the age seems pretty arbitrary to me. Same for drinking law, why the hell is it 21 in some places, 19 in others and 18 in still others? That we have to draw an arbitrary line isn't an argument for the overall concept being flawed. I think having a minimum drinking age makes sense, despite that the age the line is drawn at might not make sense.

Maybe the studies aren't there to support my wild idea that drinking sugar-loaded pop is really unhealthy, or maybe there are other things which should be taxed as well. I'm not creating a comprehensive policy--I'm nowhere near intelligent enough or knowledgeable enough to do so. I'm just arguing that it should be considered.

Otoki

SUICIDEGIRL

Minnesota, USA

NOV 19, 2006 04:25 AM

ASSH0LE said:
Actually regular soda tastes fairly vile to me. It's a matter of acquired tastes.

But non-diet sodas are quite probably one of the biggest reasons Americans are so fucking fat.

Diet soda IS "worthless" nutritionally. But it doesn't have the one thing that is most prone to cause weight gain. Carbohydrates. Essentially it's water that isn't QUITE as good for you as plain water.

Every time you eat a meal with soda you should basically count that as a second meal by itself.

Having something to eat before you go to bed is another big weight gain cause that's easy enough to eliminate.

Calories and Carbs aren't everything. There are plenty of things (like aspartame) that have no carbs/calories/measurable nutritional value, BUT the chemical make-up helps your body store and KEEP fat. I just talked to two personal trainers about this (basically, pre-med students with a few less bio classes) and they said not only does aspartame have horrible chemical effects, AND helps make diet pop addictive, but people who drink Diet tend to eat even MORE unhealthy/larger portions, because they feel like the Diet somehow cancels out the harm. These trainers said that with ALL of their clients, when they switched from diet to regular, drank way less pop, and lost about 10-15 pounds just from that diet change.

Soda isn't the culprit. Look at the ingredients in most of our processed food: High Fructose Corn Syrup. HFCS blocks the sensors in your brain that tell you you're full, which is why it's in most foods, even in small amounts, because it encourages you to eat beyond your body's limits, which makes you purchase more of the product that if there was no HFCS.

What it really comes down to is that people have to pay attention to INGREDIENTS and be EDUCATED on said ingredients' effects on the body, rather than dieting based on the "idea" behind certain ingredients.

As for ASSH0LE's remarks about Diabetes:
Doctors keep a record of your health from the time you are born. It's actually not that difficult to figure out if you are obese due to poor choices, or because of a medical condition (not resulting from poor choices). I just think poor choices should have consequences that DON'T get financially supported by people who take care of themselves. Medical conditions happen whether you take care of yourself or not.

Also, I think parents who feed their kids shitty food should be fried in lard, and their kids put into health-camp foster homes with a family that actually cares about children's health.

I fucking hate seeing obesity stemming from parents' leniency/apathy/idiocy. HATE IT.