The city known for its friendliness, multiculturalism and horrendous sports team now also wants to be known for something else: health consciousness.
The City of Toronto is in the process of implementing a proposal that would ban all sugary drinks from being sold at all city facilities. This includes pop, sports beverages, fruit drink and cocktails. According to this new proposal, all vending machines that are located at city run facilities (arenas, libraries, community centers, parks) will have to be replaced with milk, soy beverages and 100% fruit and vegetable juice. This would slowly take place over the course of the next 4 years. Currently, the city mandates that 50% of their vending machines be filled with health conscious drinks, which would be then bumped up to 75% by 2012 then to 100% by November of 2014.
And I say ‘Coolbeans dude’.
But first, let us be clear on what this proposal would be doing. This ban would NOT be city wide. You will not be penalized in anyway if you are spotted with a can of fizzy drink on city property. And this ban will not be the start of a downward spiral into dystopian rule of a totalitarian dictatorship where free will and speech will become nonexistent. No. Just city run facilities.
For a city that is so strapped for cash, yes, these vending machines are a good source of income, generating $330,000 last year, $70,000 of which was from commission. The way that it is set up now is that the current contract in place (a deal with Pepsi signed in 2005) is set to expire at the end of October. A new contract is currently up for grabs that will be signed by the city within the next couple of weeks. Imposing these new rules is not going to take away this influx of cash that the city so desperately needs. Pepsi, Coca-Cola or any other beverage company for that matter is not going to shy away from an opportunity to have their products all over the city. There is still going to be cash coming in. It will just be through juice, not pop.
The big reason why banning junk food is a good idea is that it is a step in the right direction in our struggle with obesity. No, simply banning pop from city facilities will not miraculously make everyone healthier. I think the best way to help impose a healthy lifestyle is through education and teaching adults, teens, and especially kids the importance of a maintaining an active lifestyle and, more importantly, the effects that junk food and pop have on one’s system. Reinforcing the benefits of a physical lifestyle has been, I think, well in place. But there needs to be a bit more emphasis on junk food, pop in particular.
A bottle of pop that has the equivalent of 17 teaspoons of sugar, is linked with obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, mood swings, sugar crashes, hundreds of empty calories and has as much nutritional value as a bag of rocks. Education will take time, but this ban, however minute, can help facilitate that education in the meantime. I know, the topic of health care is a whole other can of worms, but currently, Ontario spends 43 cents per program dollar on health care. The cost of health care spending has exceeded inflation by almost a full percent since 1982. The aging baby boomers are going to add to this cost. Having the following generation that is very unhealthy will again only add to this cost. This is Toronto’s way of helping to stop that. Is it the best way? No, but it’s something.
Now, the option of choice is still existent. Want a pop? Fine, you’ll just have to go to a corner store. Or a grocery store. Or a mall. Or anywhere else in the city that isn’t a park or an arena or community center or city hall. There is absolutely an endless amount of choice. When was the last time you went into a city run facility to buy from a vending machine anyway?
And speaking of choice isn’t that what we’ve had so far? The argument that people will make the healthy conscious decision when given a choice has proved that people will just go straight for the sweet stuff. Even though city vending machines are only half of the sugary stuff, pop and sports beverages account for 71% of all sales, with juice at 6%.
Imposing this will not automatically lead to some sort of draconian rule where everything that is bad for you will be banished. British Columbia has had a junk food ban in all schools since 2008 and the last time I checked they seemed to still be a functional, democratic province. The city just does not want to endorse something that has been considered by many to be one of the main ingredients in the obesity epidemic on their property.
To be clear, I do not think Toronto imposing a city wide ban on pop would be the right thing. If you want a cold can of Sprite, go for it. It tastes great and not everything you do has to be for the healthy betterment of your life. You sometimes eat/drink/do things because it makes you happy or feel good. There’s nothing wrong with that, and let’s be honest, I love a cold can of pop and I love binge drinking and come on, there is absolutely NOTHING healthy about that. You can still enjoy life. You just won’t be able to do it at the arena.
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