After banning the sales of 16 ounce large sugary drinks in restaurants, food-chains, deli and movie theaters, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg takes on hospitals in his latest effort to combat obesity. Now Mayor Bloomberg is attempting to ban sugary drinks and junk foods from both private and public hospitals.
But unlike the soda ban which was imposed upon food-serving entities, hospitals have voluntarily submitted to the hospital healthy food initiative. According to NBC Chicago, 16 hospitals have already signed on to the campaign.
The bill prohibits patients to be served junk-food, candy or sugary sodas. But the bill will not only affect patients but visitors, the bill requires hospital cafeterias to stop serving any kind of fast-food or large size sugary drinks, even candy-bar vending machines will be unavailable in hospital waiting rooms and cafeterias.
Bloomberg told reporters on Monday, "If there's any place that should not allow smoking or try to make you eat healthy, you would think it'd be the hospitals...We're doing what we should do and you'll see, I think, most of the private hospitals go along with it," as reported by NBC.
Christine Curtis, City Health Department's director of nutrition strategy, told NBC, "People sometimes right now don't have healthy options...So you are there at 2 in the morning and maybe your only choice is soda and chips."
On 13 September, the New York Board of Health voted to place a ban on 16 ounces sugar drink. In May, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a bill in an attempt to combat rising obesity rates. The bill seeks to ban the sale of any 16 ounce soda or sugary drinks in any food entity that receives a letter grade for food services; this includes restaurants, hotels, delis, food-chains, food carts and movie theaters.
The ban does not apply to bottled drinks sold in markets or stores. It also doesn't include diet drinks, fruit juices, alcoholic or dairy drinks.
The bill is the first of its kind and if passed, will be in effect from March 2013.
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