Actor Alec Baldwin recently shed 30 pounds by eliminating most sugars from his diet, and now he wants to take dietary choices away from his fellow New Yorkers.
Baldwin, Emmy-winning star of the basement-rated “30 Rock” sitcom, penned an op-ed for The Huffington Post supporting New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new soda size restrictions.
Food is a drug. At least in the way it is marketed today, which is significantly different from when I grew up. As a child, sweets were referred to as “treats,” and were dispensed far more judiciously than they are today. The proliferation of fast food restaurants that serve high fat, high sugar meals, as well as places like Dunkin Donuts, which are simply sugar dispensaries, has evolved as well….
Many of those who cry loudest about measures like the one Bloomberg has proposed are probably sick, too: hooked on high fat, high sodium and high sugar diets who don’t want their “drug” taken away. Are there people who consume these products responsibly? Of course. But that isn’t the point. At least not anymore. Americans are obese, and in some areas of high concentration, morbidly obese, in numbers that are sapping the treasuries of the fifty states, undercutting U.S. competitiveness, and leaving this country vulnerable to a set of long-term health crises that we will struggle to overcome, if ever. All the while, millions will die, unnecessarily, simply because they fell victim to the marketing of unhealthy dietary choices.
Baldwin has seen the light about sugar, and now he wants the government to force the rest of us “addicts” to follow suit.
One wonders what restrictions Senator/Congressman/Governor Baldwin would place on us poor saps should he ever fulfill his promise to run for office.