Obesity, diabetes, good nutrition, public assistance and Mayor Bloomburg

I'm beginning to like this republican. He seems to be an old time conservative like the practical old men that raised me. I could be wrong but read this article and my comments below. . .

NYC – You wouldn’t eat 16 packets of sugar, why drink them?
by Holte Ender on Oct 7, 2010

New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with the encouragement of both city and state health commissioners, is seeking to bar the use of food stamps for buying soda and other sweetened drinks.
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Bloomberg is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which controls the food stamp program, for permission to institute a two-year ban that would affect the estimated 1.7 million city residents who receive food stamps. That time frame, he said, would permit health officials to study the health impact of such a ban.

The request, according to the mayor’s office, would not in any way reduce food stamp eligibility or size of the food stamp benefit received by recipients.

There are already a number of limitations on the use of food stamps — they cannot be used to purchase alcohol, cigarettes, imported foods, soap, toothpaste, paper products, cleaning supplies, or disposable diapers. Nor can they be used to purchase meals in restaurants.

More than half of New York City residents are overweight or obese, as are about 40% of the city’s school children, according to Farley and Daines.

“One in eight adult city residents now has diabetes, and the disease is nearly twice as common among poorer New Yorkers,” they wrote, adding that the diabetes rate in a poor neighborhood like East New York is about four times higher than the rate in “affluent Gramercy Park.”

The request to restrict food stamps is the latest of a series of healthy living initiatives by the Bloomberg administration, which has already overhauled the cafeteria offerings in the city’s public schools. The mayor also tried and failed to the get the state to impose a special sales tax on soda.

I'm all for my tax dollars going toward feeding those who are hungry. There are a lot of people out there right now who could really use a hand with food costs. They need enough food credit to buy food that's healthy, not just cheap pork and a bag of beans and big slabs of gov't cheese.
Let's also educate people who are receiving public assistance about food so they aren't buying crap food that is going to make them fat and type II diabetic.
A smart and easy way to make sure our tax dollars are being spent wisely by those in need is to be very clear about what can and can not be purchased.
Soda, chips, and other sugar and fat laden food should be a big "NO!" This is all about making sure people have food to eat so that they can function and thrive in our society. It's about feeding children and making sure they grow up healthy and ready to face the world and whatever their day has in store for them.
Oh, you think people ought to be able to choose to eat whatever they want? Fine, you take the money out of your pocket and give it to them. Why should I be sitting here being all fucking Jack Lalanne about what I eat while somebody is using my tax dollars to become obese and sick. I'm against that.
If you go on public assistance in the form of food stamps or WIC, you should be required to either attend classes on nutrition of test out of those classes.
When you go to the store and load up on soda pop, chips, ice cream, candy, etc., there should be a block on your food stamps. There are all sorts of ways to accomplish this. Food credit cards, tags on items in large grocery store computer databases and just general knowledge of those checking you out in smaller groceries, and no, you can't use your food card in a convenience store.

Come on, put me in charge. . . just for a week.

So bravo Mayor Bloomburg. Every now and then a republican shows some common sense and I've seen it more than once in you.