Tea and coffee with sugar to be outlawed in Cambridge restaurants

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cityClerk/PolicyOrder.cfm?item_id=35515

It's a simple proposal: Restaurants cannot serve ANY sugar sweetened drink in the city of Cambridge.  Thus if you want tea or coffee with sugar, (iced or hot) forget it.  It'll be fine to serve a huge glass of migraine-inducing liquid with that horrid aspartame-aftertaste, like Diet Pepsi, but it would be illegal for Starbucks to put a splash of a flavored sugar syrup in a hot beverage.  And forget about ever buying hot chocolate in a restaurant ever again in Cambridge (unless it's poisoned with aspartame).  

(edit:  I thought this was relevant to Davis Square because many people who spend time in Davis Square occasionally travel to the next town over.)

Comments

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

(dang, I can't edit my own post). I thought this was relevant to Davis Square because many people who spend time in Davis Square occasionally travel to the next town over.

[smammy]

So, you realize that the policy order you link to just refers the issue of high-sugar drinks to the health department for a recommendation, right? Seems a bit premature to say "to be outlawed" at this point.

(And is the anti-aspartame editorializing really necessary? C'mon!)

[ron_newman]

Why can't you edit your own post?

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

The button to edit didn't appear until a couple of minutes after I posted.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Wow, don't hold back. How do you really feel about artificial sweeteners?

[ron_newman]

The problem isn't that the order refers the matter for study. The problem is that, as originally drafted, what it refers for study is a "ban on soda and sugar-sweetened beverages in restaurants", rather than a limit on serving size which is what Mayor Bloomberg has proposed in New York City.

This was not what Mayor Davis intended, but it's what she wrote.

(And I recall hearing that the problem with aspartame is that it metabolizes into formaldehyde, which is poisonous.)

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I just read it again. It's a ban on ALL sodas, even if they're not sugar-sweetened. I'm sure that bars associated with restaurants are going to have a ball with this order, since most of their alcohol drinks have sugar as a main ingredient (like beer...)

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

The New York Times just did an article about artificial sweeteners (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/which-sweetener-should-you-choose/) and many of the myths surrounding their dangers. Like, for instance, that aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is methanal -- aspartame breaks down into amino acids and methanol. There's more methanol in fruit juice than there is in a packet of aspartame.

Not that I would support this ban if it ever came close to being a reality. I just think one should get one's facts straight.

[magid.livejournal.com]

::waits for the influx of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate drinkers into Davis and other Somerville areas::

[ron_newman]

It was a poorly drafted order. If it results in a Health Department recommendation at all, that recommendation will be much more specific. The Mayor intended to have the Health Department study a limitation on size, not an outright ban, but either she or someone working for her wrote the order carelessly.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

This right here is why I figured the post was relevant to our interests ;).

[zdenka]

Wow, that's a really terrible idea. Even if it only results in an attempt to limit serving size of sodas, that's still a terrible idea.

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

Still, good to know Cambridge is down to its last problem.

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

Policy Order Resolution


  O-4
  ORIGINAL ORDER
  IN CITY COUNCIL

  June 18, 2012

MAYOR DAVIS

WHEREAS: High intake of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of obesity and diabetes; and
   
WHEREAS:

New York City has a plan to limit the serving size of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages sold in restaurants; now therefore be it
      
ORDERED:

That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to refer the matter of a ban on soda and sugar-sweetened beverages in restaurants to the Cambridge Public Health Department for a recommendation. 

[ron_newman]

According to my friend Robert Winters, who closely observes the Cambridge City Council, the order was amended to read:

WHEREAS: High intake of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of obesity and diabetes; and
WHEREAS: New York City has a plan to limit the serving size of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages sold in restaurants; now therefore be it
ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to refer the matter to limit the size of soda and sugar-sweetened beverages served in Cambridge restaurants to the Cambridge Public Health Department for a recommendation.

(boldface indicates change from the original proposal)

I still think this is a bad idea, and I'd be against it here in Somerville. But it's less objectionable than the original wording.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Ok, so this is at LEAST 2 steps away from being an actual thing, right? First, the health department isn't going to recommend banning all sugar sweetened beverages, because that would be dumb. Second, the City Council won't and on such a recommendation because that would cause a riot.

I think there's a lot of over-reaction to this, at least until the recommendation comes out.

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Wow in Newton we just get all worked up about ordinances requiring people to be good neighbors, er, I mean shoveling their sidewalks.

I think this entire thread is an argument for less government. Sigh. I'm surprised I said that.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

BS, you were trolling.

[futurenurselady.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of sweeteners that aren't sugar and aren't aspartame.

Synthetic: Sucralose, Saccharine, and Xylitol all come to mind. Of those, only Saccharine has been found to be toxic.

Natural: Stevia, Agave nectar, honey, molasses, brown rice syrup are all options that are not cane sugar or corn syrup. Some of those are cheaper than raw cane sugar (read: sugar that has not been bleached).

I am sure that businesses can and will find a way around a ruling like that.

FTR, if you have not been to a doctor about getting migraines from aspartame, you ought to.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of sweeteners that aren't sugar and aren't aspartame.
Synthetic: Sucralose, Saccharine, and Xylitol all come to mind. Of those, only Saccharine has been found to be toxic.

When people are trying to avoid nuts or dairy or gluten, it doesn't matter that the food it not toxic to the world at large. If a particular person reacts badly to a particular food (or ingredient), that person should avoid it.

FTR, if you have not been to a doctor about getting migraines from aspartame, you ought to.

I've been to doctors about migraines, which are triggered by aspartame, sucralose, and xylitol. (I can sometimes tolerate small amounts of stevia and agave, in good weather, if I have not been exposed to environmental triggers during the previous week.) Not unreasonably, doctors advise me to avoid artificial sweeteners. This seems to be standard practice.

I do not appreciate cities making my health care more difficult.

[futurenurselady.livejournal.com]

And I can't have cane sugar.

Businesses that don't have sugar-free options have been making my health care difficult for many years.

My solution is to make things for myself at home, or bring things I can have with me.

Why not bring a regular sugar packet with you to add to your coffee or tea if this law goes into effect? That way, the business isn't violating anything.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't object if the city council required restaurants to have more options. (It might be too intrusive, or too expensive for restaurant owners. But it would also do good things, that might make it worthwhile.) This proposal bothers me because it would require restaurants to have FEWER options. I'm generally in favor of choices, and suspicious of government restrictions on choices--especially choices that affect my physical health.

Yes, it would be possible for me to work around this ban, if Cambridge is so wrong-headed and malicious as to pass it. But the easiest way, the safest way, for me to deal with it would be for me to spend less time in Cambridge.

[squirrelitude]

I read it differently -- I think this entire thread is an argument for better citizen understanding of our existing governmental process. (They're just asking the Health Dept for input on the idea.)

[pch1.livejournal.com]

I think the government has finally crossed the line when they try to regulate the amount of beverages in my sugar....

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

seriously, this is the most idiotic POST to date.

this is not what the mayor is proposing, stop trolling and go back to your obesity laden 'burbia where you can suck down all the sugar syrup you like.

[ron_newman]

It may not be what Mayor Davis intended to propose, but it is what she actually wrote in the original wording of her order. Blame her, not koshmom.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

Sugar is not a "main ingredient" in beer. Most beers consist of water, grains (like barley, wheat, oats, rye, corn or rice), hops, and yeast.

Cane or beet sugar is added to certain styles of beer (especially big Belgians), but rarely above 1/5 the weight of the grains, and anyway those are hardly the majority of beers even at beer geek bars. Any simple sugars added or generated during the brewing process are digested by the yeast and turned into alcohol, so the resulting drink won't have any residual sucrose or glucose or fructose.

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Man, what is it like to be a hipster blowhard with no reading skills? Did you major in that?

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

There are lots of people who get migraines from aspartame. And probably a lot more who do, but don't know it.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Wow, clevernonsense, that is the most offensive comment I've seen yet.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

You win. I award you 4 Internets.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Word.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

seriously, this is the most idiotic POST to date.

Mayors don't propose what they think, they propose what they write. Stop trolling and go back to the hole you slid out of.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Is The Atlantic monitoring this forum now along with all the Somerville papers? ;-) Now Cambridge, Mass. Is Weighing a Soda Ban, Too (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/06/now-cambridge-mass-is-weighing-a-soda-ban-too/258712/)

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Dude, what the hell?!