Friday, June 8, 2012

Sugary drinks: what is your take?

There is the whole controversy going about sugary drink intake. I have discussed with a lot of people, some are extremely offended by it, saying its a slippery slope, where does it end. Others are more like meh! what’s the big deal, I don’t really care. But I have not yet seen anybody who is ready and open to embracing the idea.
I personally think that you can’t really tell people what to drink or eat, but I guess putting on a limit to the consumption of unhealthy sugary drinks available with your meal is not a bad idea. When you get something with your meal you end up consuming most of it. Like her in the US if you get a large drink at a cinema is like a bucket size. I honestly don’t see why people would want to drink so much coke/sprite etc but I have seen people buy it and while you watching a 2 hour movie you end up consuming most of it if not all of it.
Our idea of normality changes depending on where we live, for example in the UK at McDonalds you get smaller portion (coke is what I am using as an example):
  • UK Small is 105kCal with 26g sugar
  • UK Medium is 170 kCal with 42g sugar
  • UK Large is  210 kCal with 53g sugar
While in the US at McDonalds:
  • US Child is 110kCal with 29g sugar
  • US Small is 150kCal with 40g sugar
  • US Medium is 110kCal with 29g sugar
  • US Large is 110kCal with 29g sugar
Check out Sugarstocks to get visual idea of how much sugar there really is in each portion, looking at it might surprise you a little.
Even a child size portion is bigger than a Small portion in the UK and there you get Small as a standard size with your food. Its just normal, that’s the normal amount of sugary drink intake you are expected to consume as that is the “industry standard” there. This is what is served.
While in the US everything is bigger, but that doesn’t necessary mean better. So what if Bloomberg wants to lower the sizes, after a while that is what will become normal and people will get used to it. That is how it works, if you want a bigger drink nobody is stopping you from getting a bigger size. Hey, if that not enough for you get two.
But for the next generation who grows up with a smaller size drinks that will the size they get used to consuming, which is beneficial in the long run compared to drinking buckets of sugar drinks.
I for one who definitely wouldn’t like my child to consume that much sugar in a day, especially now a days when everything from bread to a small serving of yopait has so much sugar in it. And being Indian we are genetically predisposed to get diabetes. I would do what I can to limit the intake of sugar for family whether Bloomberg is able to make this change or not. Would you?

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