Tian 1 Eli Tian Kristen Foster CO150.

401 22 November, 2013 Should the Government Tell Us What Size of Beverage to Drink? To Whom Care about This Issue After a fierce football game in a hot summer afternoon, what do you like to drink? Coca-Cola must be the best choice. Before watching a movie, what do you like best to refresh yourself? A big cup of cool soft drink! How about someone tell you that you can only buy a 16ounce-bottle drink? Thats whats going to happen in New York City. Several weeks ago, I heard that New York City is going to have a soft drink size limit when we were talking about controversial topics in class. It was supported by the mayor Michael Bloomberg. Under the plan, all restaurants, fast-food joints, delis, movie theaters, sports stadiums and food carts would be barred from selling sugar-sweetened drinks in cups larger than 16 ounces (Wikipedia). It seems ridiculous to me, that we as adults cant actually choose what size of beverages to drink, as if we are small babies who need their parents to tell them to be well behaved. I could understand the reasons to have an age limit to buy alcoholic drinks and smoking bans in public areas. Drinking alcohol may result in car accident and smoking in public areas can cause damage to others health. However, drinking a sugary beverage is no one elses business. Im writing this to convince people who care about this issue that the government has no right to tell us what size of beverages to drink. We enjoy the right to drink whatever size we like. Moreover, for whom already think so, we should unite together to act to stop this legislation.

Tian 2 Firstly, this big-soda ban wont help the situation (obesity rate increases every year) become better. Because a restriction placed solely against soda made little sense considering all of the other unhealthy things that still will be readily available for consumers. According to the government data, Sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, ready-to-drink teas, sport drinks, juice drinks and flavored waters, account for only 7 percent of calories in the average Americans diet. Under this ban, you can still go to Yankee Stadium and order all of the following contributors to 93 percent of your daily calories: hot dogs, corn dogs and crinkle-cut fries et al. The obesity rate would still increase. So solely ban soda wont help the situation become better, then the government should consider another way. Secondly, we are happy to drink soda and the government should obey popular will. Because it is us who create the government. According to a poll, 64 percent would not support a ban on large sugary drinks in their own community, versus 36 percent who would favor capping the drinks at 16 ounce (Weinger). As far as I am concerned the reason is that drinking sugary beverages makes us feel happy and cool. Thats why Coca-Cola sells so well and has maintained itself as the most valuable brand for many years. Coca-Cola is the symbol for sugary beverage. I have seen a Coca-Cola commercial. It express a value that everyone can buy a bottle of CocaCola at the exactly same price and enjoy no less happiness compared with a president. Thats one kind of happiness both the poor and the rich can enjoy. It is a case of justice, which we common people cant always possess because of our social status. There are many legislations and laws that tell us what shouldnt do. They bring so much stress to us common people and therefore make us unhappy. In other words, if the majority of people dont agree with the idea of a soda ban, then the government shouldnt establish it. That is democracy.

Tian 3 Moreover it is injustice for the government to regulate us common people in this way. We know that the role of the government is not supposed to be always telling us common people to be well behaved. Instead, the government should act more to regulate the upper society, for example, Wall Street, to make us common people feel that we are equally treated. According to my political science professor Pamela Duncan, the United States has a well-established law system on public issues which is called Civil-Law system. However, there are less legislations for the upper class. This raises the concern of financial crime. For example, the famous Occupy Wall Street campaign is because of this inequality in legislation. Thereby, the government should shift its concentration to the regulation of the upper class. In other word, this is a case of justice. We cant bear the act that violates our freedom this time. We need to act to let the government know we have the right to do what we want to do. We call for justice. Thirdly, this plan is clearly an outreach of government power. Actually it has been twice rejected by judges as improper and unconstitutional (Grynbaum). Adam Geller, a Huffpost editorial, also points out that Bloomberg's proposal raises super-sized questions about government's role in shaping and restricting individual choices. That is, what size of beverage to drink is none of the governments business. Whats more, people of the United States value freedom and limited government as their political culture (Greenberg & Page 120). It is obvious that this legislation is on the opposite side of freedom and limited government. The government is expanding its power spectrum by establishing this legislation. Whats more, if we let this legislation become established, what will come next? Geller asks If government officials can limit the size of sodas, why couldn't they next decide to restrict portion sizes of food served in restaurants or the size of pre-made meals sold at supermarkets? Theres an old saying: the more

Tian 4 one gets the more one wants. If this time we bear this outreach act, the government will violate other interest of us continuously. So it is time for us to unite together and reject this legislation immediately to put an end to such outreach of government power. Fourthly, there are many other things that do harm to us but we couldnt ban all of them. For example, microwave ovens, which have been using today in almost every American family. By using microwave to cook foods, we destroy the structure of proteins. That is, the nutrition has lost. Microwave leakage can also damage our bodies (WHO). Thereby, we should also ban microwave ovens. Fast food contribute a lot to our daily calories hence increases our waistlines. Thereby, we should ban fast food. Social network has negative effects on our daily communication with others (Maggiani). Also, we can see many students using their phones to Facebook others. Thereby, we should ban social network in order to maintain our communication skills and concentrate in class. There are many things that have both advantages and disadvantages. If one thing has a disadvantage then we should ban it, we should ban almost everything. Such result is clearly ridiculous. Therefore, the legislation of big-soda ban is ridiculous. So the government shouldnt tell us to drink small size soda. Some people who are in favor of this legislation may say that soda is bad for our health. According to the article Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain in 2-to 5-Year-Old Children, body weight increases with consumption of soda beverages. So that children are vulnerable towards soda. Also, sugary beverage can cause many health problems, like high blood pressure and diabetes (Stanfordhospital). So reducing our consumption of drink soda is a pretty good idea for the sake of our health. However, this is not a reason for the government to force us to drink small-size soda. Our own willing to reduce the consumption of soda is different from the legislation to reduce it. However, since sugary beverage does do harm to our bodies, we need to

Tian 5 make efforts to alleviate this harm. According to Make these better food choices for better heart health published by Harvard Heart Letter, It's easier to follow a heart-healthy diet than you think. All it may take are some simple changes in your food choices. Also, I personally come up with some ideas that I think will work. We can educate people to make their own choice rather than forcing them to what they dont want to. The most significant thing to do is to let people know the negative effect of sugary beverage. It is better to teach the children to realize it because they are young. They are at the age stage of forming judgment sense. It is important to tell them to make good choice, that is, reduce their soda consumption. The government can make some broadcast and set up some health related courses to educate people rather than come up with a legislation. So the answer is that although soda has some negative effects toward our health, the government cant establish a soda ban. What it should do is to educate people rather than force them. In conclusion, the government has no right to force us to drink small-size soda. Its not feasible to ban everything that do harm to us so that only ban big-size soda wont help the situation become better. The best way is to educate people to make their own choice rather than using a legislation. So, the government shouldnt tell us what size of beverage to drink and we should unite to resist this legislation.

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Work cited Adam Geller. New York Soda Ban: After Controversial Bloomberg Proposal, What Foods Would Be Next? Huffpost. 01 June, 2012. Web. 10 November, 2013. Electromagnetic Fields & Public Health: Microwave Ovens. World Health Organization. February 2005. Web. 11 November, 2013. Grynbaum, Michael. New York Soda Ban to Go before States Top Court. New York Times. the New York Times, 17 Oct 2013. Web. 18 Oct 2013. Greenberg, Edward and Benjamin Page. The Struggle for Democracy. Pearson. 2009 print. 9th edition Health Effects of Obesity Stanfordhospital. Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Web. 18 Oct 2013. < http://www.stanfordhospital.org/>. Mackenzie Weinger. Poll: Majority oppose New York City soda ban. POLITICO. 08 June 2012. Web. 10 November, 2013. Make these better food choices for better heart health Harvard Heart Letter. 2.24 (2013): 1-7. Academic Search Premier Web. 18 Oct. 2013. Mark DeBoer, Scharf, Rebecca, and Demmer, Ryan. Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain in 2-to 5-Year-Old Children Pediatrics. 132.3 (2013): 413-20. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Tian 7 New York City soft drink size limit Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 24 October. 2013. Web. 12 November. 2013. Rich Maggiani. Social Media and Its Effect on Communication: Multidimensional interactions have altered the basic rules of communication. Solari. 2012. Web. 20 November, 2013.