A Soda Ban Is Not American

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jun 26, 6:34AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Some politicians and doctors may want to curb Americans’ consumption of sugar, fatty food and other junk. Americans who are willing to brave obesity, Type II diabetes, heart attack and stroke will have not of it. Don’t tread on them. The reaction will be a violent one.

The most high-profile effort to improve the food and drink consumption habits of Americans was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to limit the size of cups for sugary drinks. So far, he has been unsuccessful in getting his ban in place. In part that is because people do not want the ban. They want huge cups filled to the brim with Coke and Pepsi, no matter what it may cost them in health down the road.

A new Gallup poll on size limits for soft drinks finds:

Americans, by 69% to 30%, say they would vote against a law that limits the size of soft drinks and other sugary beverages served in restaurants to no more than 16 ounces.

The only flaw with the way the question was phrased is that the matter will never be put to a vote. It will be determined in the courts, which are likely to side with the freedom of drinking.

Gallup suggests that Americans resist the ban because they drink so much soda, and additionally the coffee that can be poured into large cups.

There are many possible reasons that seven in 10 Americans say they would vote against a law that would limit the size of soft drinks and other sugary beverages served in restaurants to no more than 16 ounces. To start with, soda and coffee — two beverages that could be subject to size limits under this proposal if they are sweetened — are very popular, with nearly half of Americans drinking soda and two-thirds drinking coffee each day.That conclusion is flawed. Americans see the ban on large cups are one of their last real freedoms. They already cannot speed on highways, drink alcohol in public, or swear at policemen. What else is left? Aside from the freedom to put pants on one leg at a time, there is little more than the size of the cups that they drink their drinks out of.

However, the resistance is well beyond that. Americans live in a society in which they cannot exceed the speed limit, text while driving, consume alcohol in public or swear at police officers. That leaves them with the freedom to put on their own pants, one leg at a time, and drink soda out of whatever cups they please.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.