11 ms·

I’ll go one step further—-all beverages with the sugar:water ratio of Coca Cola should be summarily banned. Diet soda, dunno what to do with that one.

dogma1138 5y ago
So all juices and smoothies? many of them have more sugar than Coke.... Even juices without any added sugar will have a ton of sugar in them if they come from sugar rich fruits.
- cogman10 5y ago
  Apple juice is about 100% sugar which is why you'll see it in so many "100% juice" products.
  - k3liutZu 5y ago
    I think sugar is 100% sugar, hence "apple juice" can't be "100% sugar" since it has to have some water in it
    - taylorius 5y ago
      I thought that apple juice was a bit dry and grainy.
  - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
    Apple juice is about 10% sugar, I don't know why you're mentioning an improbable number. And here's the thing: Sugar is not a bad thing per se. It's overconsumption of it that's the issue. I'd rather have someone drink fruit juice than soda, but all in moderation.
- bena 5y ago
  That's because a glass of juice isn't the equivalent of eating an orange, it's the equivalent of eating an orchard. An exaggeration, obviously, but it is really bad. The number of fruits you have to eat to equal a glass of juice is significant.
scandinavian 5y ago
What's wrong with diet soda?
- axiosgunnar 5y ago
  Possibly carcinogenic, but that's a big possibly, compared to the blatantly obvious harm caused by high-fructose corn syrup.
  - scandinavian 5y ago
    That's news to me. Wikipedia also notes that Aspartame which is the sweetener used in most diet soda, has not been found to be carcinogenic with a bunch of citations. Or are you talking about other ingredients?
    - bena 5y ago
      He's not. Artificial sweeteners are one of the most demonized additives on the planet despite being one of the most studied. Because people are so often looking for a reason to get rid of them. Even the studies of them being bad for "getting used to sweetness" and thus making people more obese through compensatory over-eating are studies that rely on self-reporting and polling. When properly controlled, physics works as it always has and you can't magic mass or energy out of thin air.
  - valvar 5y ago
    If you're talking about aspartame it's about as possibly carcinogenic as the moon landing was possibly faked.
- petercooper 5y ago
  As part of improving my health, I came off of drinking sugary sodas a few years back and went sugar free. My dentist remained unimpressed saying that the sugar is only a small part of the story and really it's the acid in soda that will cause me problems. I now drink a lot more water around any soda consumption to mitigate it slightly, but I gotta have some bad habits..
petercooper 5y ago
Here in the UK a lot of stores no longer sell caffeinated drinks to under 16s (it's not a law, but it's a common practice) so Red Bull et al. are out. I guess such a thing could be extended to sugary soda in general eventually. It's annoying, though, because if I want to buy one, I have to be "challenge 25" checked, but I guess it reduces my consumption as well!
- dcolkitt 5y ago
  There’s zero evidence whatsoever that caffeine is unhealthy for children. And given what we know about the health benefits in adult, coffee is most likely health promoting for children.
  - viraptor 5y ago
    It's not just the caffeine itself - that's one aspect. It's promoting the "use this to not sleep" recurring lifestyle choice, which some kids do come to rely on. This gets worse with Monster and others pushing the caffeine limits. (I remember a free Monster giveaway at uni - could not sleep for close to 30h - that stuff is not healthy)
    - valvar 5y ago
      Well, that's you. Everyone drank Monster at my uni and I don't think there were any reports of sleep issues. Of course it depends on your existing caffeine tolerance, and I guess most students consume quite a lot of caffeinated beverages, but if it was a common issue for those with low tolerance I'm sure we'd have noticed.
      - tester34 5y ago
        >Everyone drank Monster at my uni How was the silhouette of the people who drank the most of it?
        valvar 5y ago
fjtktkgnfnr 5y ago
What do you think about narcotics, should they be legal or not? One thing I noticed is that people who are for banning soda or alcohol are surprisingly for legalization of soft and hard drugs.
- hasmolo 5y ago
  comparing addictions serves no meaningful purpose. people who want legal drugs still believe in a minimum age. i think that sugar should be seen as addictive as other drugs and the users must be old enough to be able to understand the risk of consuming.
- patentatt 5y ago
  Banning is different from criminalization. So to make both legal but not easily obtainable seems consistent. Throwing someone in jail for life for possessing a 2-liter of coke seems wrong.
  - sterlind 5y ago
    anyone possessing 2-liters of coke is obviously a dealer. I'm all for decriminalizing the travel size cans, but we need party-size felonies for party-size containers.
eplanit 5y ago
"Diet soda, dunno what to do with that one." Let people decide for themselves? Alcohol is unhealthy, so it should be banned. Hamburgers are high fat and environmentally impactful, so those should be banned, too. Let's not forget cigarettes.... Yes people should opt to not consume unhealthy stuff, but how much authoritarianism do you really want?
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  Banning all of those won't work - remember the Prohibition? - but there's plenty of discouragement things going on, at least on this side of the pond. Alcohol and tobacco are heavily taxed, tobacco can no longer be advertised for, displayed, or be in any kind interesting (bland packaging), and that's after they had to have big warnings about the health risks of smoking. And there's plans to introduce sugar taxes - which I would be more on board with if those taxes were used to subsidize and lower the price of 'good' food / essentials.
  - boring_twenties 5y ago
    In the US, we might not even need to tax sugar. We could try just ending the massive subsidies for it (and corn).
  - briandear 5y ago
    Why can’t government just stay out of it? I don’t recall electing a government to be my parents. Government should build roads and have a Navy but why should a government “encourage” healthy behaviors, etc. Are people unable to be adults on their own?
    - handrous 5y ago
      OTOH I'm not sure casting people into the wild to deal, all on their own, with megacorps employing hundreds or thousands dedicated to convincing people to make bad choices is a great idea, either. I'm not convinced Rugged Individualism and anything like the modern economy are compatible, in any kind of way in which the outcome of trying to have both is pleasant. It may be a "choose one" kind of situation.
handrous 5y ago
I dunno about banned. Not practical, for one thing. Although... I dunno, I don't see bootlegging being as successful or widespread with soda as it was with alcohol. Regardless, probably not practical. But the state of things in which unlimited free refills of soda is the norm, 64+oz fountain soda servings are common, and 300+ calories of soda are often added on to "combo meals" for effectively just ¢20-¢30 over the cost of the food as a "sweetener" (ha) to get people to choose a combo over a single item, is clearly not great. Something's out-of-whack.

dogma1138 5y ago

So all juices and smoothies? many of them have more sugar than Coke.... Even juices without any added sugar will have a ton of sugar in them if they come from sugar rich fruits.

cogman10 5y ago
Apple juice is about 100% sugar which is why you'll see it in so many "100% juice" products.
- k3liutZu 5y ago
  I think sugar is 100% sugar, hence "apple juice" can't be "100% sugar" since it has to have some water in it
  - taylorius 5y ago
    I thought that apple juice was a bit dry and grainy.
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  Apple juice is about 10% sugar, I don't know why you're mentioning an improbable number. And here's the thing: Sugar is not a bad thing per se. It's overconsumption of it that's the issue. I'd rather have someone drink fruit juice than soda, but all in moderation.
bena 5y ago
That's because a glass of juice isn't the equivalent of eating an orange, it's the equivalent of eating an orchard. An exaggeration, obviously, but it is really bad. The number of fruits you have to eat to equal a glass of juice is significant.

scandinavian 5y ago

What's wrong with diet soda?

axiosgunnar 5y ago
Possibly carcinogenic, but that's a big possibly, compared to the blatantly obvious harm caused by high-fructose corn syrup.
- scandinavian 5y ago
  That's news to me. Wikipedia also notes that Aspartame which is the sweetener used in most diet soda, has not been found to be carcinogenic with a bunch of citations. Or are you talking about other ingredients?
  - bena 5y ago
    He's not. Artificial sweeteners are one of the most demonized additives on the planet despite being one of the most studied. Because people are so often looking for a reason to get rid of them. Even the studies of them being bad for "getting used to sweetness" and thus making people more obese through compensatory over-eating are studies that rely on self-reporting and polling. When properly controlled, physics works as it always has and you can't magic mass or energy out of thin air.
- valvar 5y ago
  If you're talking about aspartame it's about as possibly carcinogenic as the moon landing was possibly faked.
petercooper 5y ago
As part of improving my health, I came off of drinking sugary sodas a few years back and went sugar free. My dentist remained unimpressed saying that the sugar is only a small part of the story and really it's the acid in soda that will cause me problems. I now drink a lot more water around any soda consumption to mitigate it slightly, but I gotta have some bad habits..

petercooper 5y ago

Here in the UK a lot of stores no longer sell caffeinated drinks to under 16s (it's not a law, but it's a common practice) so Red Bull et al. are out. I guess such a thing could be extended to sugary soda in general eventually. It's annoying, though, because if I want to buy one, I have to be "challenge 25" checked, but I guess it reduces my consumption as well!

dcolkitt 5y ago
There’s zero evidence whatsoever that caffeine is unhealthy for children. And given what we know about the health benefits in adult, coffee is most likely health promoting for children.
- viraptor 5y ago
  It's not just the caffeine itself - that's one aspect. It's promoting the "use this to not sleep" recurring lifestyle choice, which some kids do come to rely on. This gets worse with Monster and others pushing the caffeine limits. (I remember a free Monster giveaway at uni - could not sleep for close to 30h - that stuff is not healthy)
  - valvar 5y ago
    Well, that's you. Everyone drank Monster at my uni and I don't think there were any reports of sleep issues. Of course it depends on your existing caffeine tolerance, and I guess most students consume quite a lot of caffeinated beverages, but if it was a common issue for those with low tolerance I'm sure we'd have noticed.
    - tester34 5y ago
      >Everyone drank Monster at my uni How was the silhouette of the people who drank the most of it?
      - valvar 5y ago

fjtktkgnfnr 5y ago

What do you think about narcotics, should they be legal or not? One thing I noticed is that people who are for banning soda or alcohol are surprisingly for legalization of soft and hard drugs.

hasmolo 5y ago
comparing addictions serves no meaningful purpose. people who want legal drugs still believe in a minimum age. i think that sugar should be seen as addictive as other drugs and the users must be old enough to be able to understand the risk of consuming.
patentatt 5y ago
Banning is different from criminalization. So to make both legal but not easily obtainable seems consistent. Throwing someone in jail for life for possessing a 2-liter of coke seems wrong.
- sterlind 5y ago
  anyone possessing 2-liters of coke is obviously a dealer. I'm all for decriminalizing the travel size cans, but we need party-size felonies for party-size containers.

eplanit 5y ago

"Diet soda, dunno what to do with that one." Let people decide for themselves? Alcohol is unhealthy, so it should be banned. Hamburgers are high fat and environmentally impactful, so those should be banned, too. Let's not forget cigarettes.... Yes people should opt to not consume unhealthy stuff, but how much authoritarianism do you really want?

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
Banning all of those won't work - remember the Prohibition? - but there's plenty of discouragement things going on, at least on this side of the pond. Alcohol and tobacco are heavily taxed, tobacco can no longer be advertised for, displayed, or be in any kind interesting (bland packaging), and that's after they had to have big warnings about the health risks of smoking. And there's plans to introduce sugar taxes - which I would be more on board with if those taxes were used to subsidize and lower the price of 'good' food / essentials.
- boring_twenties 5y ago
  In the US, we might not even need to tax sugar. We could try just ending the massive subsidies for it (and corn).
- briandear 5y ago
  Why can’t government just stay out of it? I don’t recall electing a government to be my parents. Government should build roads and have a Navy but why should a government “encourage” healthy behaviors, etc. Are people unable to be adults on their own?
  - handrous 5y ago
    OTOH I'm not sure casting people into the wild to deal, all on their own, with megacorps employing hundreds or thousands dedicated to convincing people to make bad choices is a great idea, either. I'm not convinced Rugged Individualism and anything like the modern economy are compatible, in any kind of way in which the outcome of trying to have both is pleasant. It may be a "choose one" kind of situation.

handrous 5y ago

I dunno about banned. Not practical, for one thing. Although... I dunno, I don't see bootlegging being as successful or widespread with soda as it was with alcohol. Regardless, probably not practical. But the state of things in which unlimited free refills of soda is the norm, 64+oz fountain soda servings are common, and 300+ calories of soda are often added on to "combo meals" for effectively just ¢20-¢30 over the cost of the food as a "sweetener" (ha) to get people to choose a combo over a single item, is clearly not great. Something's out-of-whack.