Coca-Cola Co and McDonald’s Corp fired back at New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg on Thursday for proposing a ban of large-sized soft drinks at restaurants and other food service outlets.

“New Yorkers expect and deserve better than this. They can make their own choices about the beverages they purchase,” Coca-Cola said in a statement.

The world’s largest soft-drink maker, which would also be disproportionately affected by such a ban, said it already includes calorie counts on the front of its bottles and cans in New York and that restaurants already post the calorie content of all their offerings and portion sizes, including soft drinks.

The statement from Coke comes a day after Mayor Bloomberg said he was proposing an amendment to the city’s health code to prohibit food service outlets from selling sugary soft drinks larger than 16 ounces.

The ban would apply to restaurants, mobile food carts, delicatessens and concessions at movie theaters, stadiums or arenas, where sales of fountain drinks are common. It would not apply to convenience stores, grocery stores or drug stores, which mostly sell beverages in bottles and cans.

Targeting cup sizes is the latest move in an ongoing effort to reduce Americans’ calories from sugary drinks. That is part of a broader push to fight obesity, which is a huge and growing burden to the nation’s healthcare system.

“Public health issues cannot be effectively addressed through a narrowly focused and misguided ban,” said a spokeswoman for McDonald’s USA. “This is a complex topic, and one that requires a more collaborative and comprehensive approach.”

For years, advocates and health experts have focused on additional taxes that they say would curb consumption and raise billions of dollars nationally.

Several studies have shown that higher taxes on sugary beverages does reduce consumption, helping to prevent diabetes and lowering health care spending. Critics say the taxes are an unfair way to close budget gaps and hurt consumers.

Companies fire back at proposed NYC big soda ban – Yahoo! News Canada

At Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s press conference touting his efforts to stop the sale of large soft drinks in restaurants, one reporter in attendance brought up the interesting fact that his administration also supporting “National Donut Day” tomorrow and inquired as to whether that muddled the mayor’s message on the issue.

Indeed, at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, Entenmann’s will be unveiling “Custom-made Entenmann’s large donuts, 1-foot in diameter” at Madison Square Park at the same time they unveil a “Proclamation Letter by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.”

“The work of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reflects the mayor’s public health agenda,” Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said about the possible donut conflict. “The message is that we will do what we need in our official capacity to protect the health of New Yorkers.”

“The celebratory events, the naming days in honor of individuals or items, or frivolities that are fun and [bring] exceptional joy are quite distinct from a public health agenda,” she added.

Worried About The Soda Ban? Fear Not, Bloomberg to Support ‘National Donut Day’ Tomorrow [Video] | Politicker

New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity.

The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.

The measure would not apply to diet sodas, fruit juices, dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, or alcoholic beverages; it would not extend to beverages sold in grocery or convenience stores.

“Obesity is a nationwide problem, and all over the United States, public health officials are wringing their hands saying, ‘Oh, this is terrible,’ ” Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview on Wednesday in the Governor’s Room at City Hall.

“New York City is not about wringing your hands; it’s about doing something,” he said. “I think that’s what the public wants the mayor to do.”

A spokesman for the New York City Beverage Association, an arm of the soda industry’s national trade group, criticized the city’s proposal on Wednesday. The industry has clashed repeatedly with the city’s health department, saying it has unfairly singled out soda; industry groups have bought subway advertisements promoting their cause.

“The New York City health department’s unhealthy obsession with attacking soft drinks is again pushing them over the top,” the industry spokesman, Stefan Friedman, said. “It’s time for serious health professionals to move on and seek solutions that are going to actually curb obesity. These zealous proposals just distract from the hard work that needs to be done on this front.”

Bloomberg Plans a Ban on Large Sugared Drinks – NYTimes.com

Two experts with inside knowledge of the airline seat industry– a vice president at a seat manufacturer and a nationally recognized expert in the study of body measurements — recently talked frankly about some of the reasons behind the anger and discomfort.

Are the seats getting smaller? Closer together? Are passengers getting bigger? Are we getting angrier?

Well, no. Yes. Yes. And its unclear.

Americans are getting bigger, says Kathleen Robinette, whos studied human body measurements for the U.S. Air Force for three decades.

But in general, the problems “not you — its the seat,” she says with a chuckle.

Since Robinettes first airline seat study for NASA and the FAA in 1978, she has a different perspective when she boards an airliner. “I always see all kinds of arms hanging out into the aisles. That means the seats are too narrow, and theres nowhere for the shoulders and arms to go except into the aisle because theres not enough room in the seat.”

When “you keep getting your arm whacked by the cart as it comes down the aisle,” dont feel guilty, she says. It happens to everybody. “And its because of the seats.”

And what about passengers grabbing the seat in front of them to pull themselves out of their own seats? Is that really a thing?Airplane seating has come a long way since 1925, when German airline seats looked like this.

“It can be quite annoying,” laughs Jeff Luedeke, a vice president at airline seat manufacturer TIMCO Aerosystems, maker of seats aboard Allegiant, Japan Airlines, RwandAir, and Spirit Airlines. Seat grabbing creates a challenge for designers, said Luedeke, who flies about a quarter-million miles yearly. “If the rows werent so close together that would probably prevent people from grabbing the back of the seat.”

In 1962, the U.S. government measured the width of the American backside in the seated position. It averaged 14 inches for men and 14.4 inches for women. Forty years later, an Air Force study directed by Robinette showed male and female butts had blown up on average to more than 15 inches.

“The seat is a revenue generator,” Luedeke says. “Normally if you look at a 737 or A320 there are three seats on each side. If you wanted maximum comfort you could do two on each side — and make the seats a lot wider.

But with the reduced head count the operational costs dont work out.”But the American rear end isnt really the important statistic here, Robinette says.

Nor are the male hips, which the industry mistakenly used to determine seat width sometime around the 1960s, she says.

“It’s the wrong dimension. The widest part of your body is your shoulders and arms. And thats much, much bigger than your hips. Several inches wider.” Furthermore, she says, women actually have larger hip width on average than men.

The industry used the male hip as a seat measuring stick “thinking that it would accommodate the women too, but in fact they dont accommodate the larger women.”

The result: Airline seats are approximately 5 inches too narrow, she says. And thats for passengers in the 1960s, let alone the supersized U.S. travelers of today.

Airline squeeze: Its not you, its the seat – CNN.com

Meet Lonneshia Shafaye Appling.

The Georgia woman, 26, was so determined to shoplift beer, bacon, cheese, and chicken wings from a Piggly Wiggly that she punched, spit at, and pepper-sprayed store workers who confronted her as she tried to flee the supermarket Wednesday afternoon, according to cops.

Appling, pictured in the adjacent mug shot, allegedly hid items worth $88.27 in a canvas bag. She “attempted to check out, only putting one item on the counter,” according to a worker quoted in an Athens-Clarke County Police Department report.

When a Piggly Wiggly employee–who had been tipped to the pilfering by a shopper–asked Appling about the concealed items, she tried to exit the store. After worker Jonathan Orr tried to stop Appling, she “pulled out some pepper spray and sprayed him in the face.”

Appling kept spraying as several workers tried to keep her from fleeing. The 340-pound Appling also allegedly punched Orr in the face and spit on the 28-year-old employee. As she successfully bolted from the Athens store, Appling “was dropping beer cans out of her purse.”

Responding to a 911 call, a cop reported spotting “a very large black female in a purple dress standing there screaming at two store employees” who followed her outside the Piggly Wiggly, which was filled with a choking cloud of pepper spray. Police then arrested Appling, whose rap sheet includes several prior shoplifting convictions and outstanding arrest warrants in three Georgia counties.

Cops prepared an inventory of the items Appling sought to swipe: five packages of cheese; eight cans of Coors Light; vegetable oil; chicken wings; and five packages of bacon. As first reported by the Athens Banner Herald, she was charged with a variety of crimes, including aggravated assault, theft, simple battery, and disorderly conduct.

While in police custody, Appling told a cop to add whatever charges he wanted “because she was going to plea bargain and half of the charges would be dropped anyway,” according to the report. She also asked Officer Nathaniel Franco if her arrest would make the police blotter, requesting that the cop make his report “more interesting so that her arrest would make” the department’s compendium of notable incidents.

The unemployed–and now incarcerated–Appling “also commented that store personnel shouldn’t chase people like that because they could get themselves hurt.” Or shoplifters could get busted.

Bacon Lover In Piggly Wiggly Rampage | The Smoking Gun

A new study suggests that imposing a fat tax on unhealthy food and drinks could help slim down expanding waistlines.

According to British Medical Journal , more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight. Under the tax, a $4 cheeseburger would cost an extra 80 cents, RTV6’s Stacia Matthews reported.

Some Hoosiers found the proposed fat tax hard to swallow.

“I don’t think we should tax people and the way they run their lives,” one man said.

Others said a fat tax is palatable.

“I’d pay 20 percent. It’s worth it,” one woman said. “I would eat a lot more healthy just to save more money.”

Researchers said a fat tax could drop obesity rates by 3.5 percent and prevent 2,700 heart-related deaths a year. The study also urged subsidies for healthier foods and veggies to make them more affordable.

Dr. Eric Wright, who heads the Department of Public Health at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said the fat tax falls right in line with other consumer products.

“Weve applied tax to alcohol and tobacco and that has definitely shown through very many studies that it actually decreased use. So, the logic has been applied to fatty foods and preliminary evidence in Europe is that it’s very effective,” Wright said.

Report: Fat Tax Could Curb Nations Obesity Problem – Staying Healthy News Story – WRTV Indianapolis

A 9-year-old boy removed from his mothers custody after his weight ballooned to more than 200 pounds has slimmed down enough to return home.

The boy, who was placed in foster care last fall and then with an uncle, lost about 50 pounds over four months through exercise and healthy eating. He was returned to his mother under protective supervision in March, and a juvenile court judge in Cleveland released him from that supervision Thursday.

Social service workers still plan on checking in with the boy and his mother in Cleveland Heights and have offered them nutritional and health counseling. The YMCA also gave the boy and his mother a free membership.

“Thats the tremendous thing,” said John Lawson, an attorney who was appointed by a judge to act as a guardian during the court proceedings. “Lets hope we never have to go back to court with this child.”

Obese 9-year-old boy removed from Ohio home sheds 50 lbs – Toledo Blade

Meow, allegedly the country’s heaviest feline, passed away over the weekend after developing respiratory complications.

The nation met the rotund kitty last month after his 87-year-old owner dropped him off at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, claiming she could no longer care for him – no surprise, given that Meow tipped the scales at 39 pounds. The average cat Meow’s “height” weighs 8-12 pounds; an equivalent-sized human would weigh around 600 pounds.

The orange-and-white tabby became a media sensation, appearing on Anderson Cooper’s show and elsewhere in an effort to find a new home (and perhaps raise awareness of the country’s growing pet-obesity problem). But Meow’s high weight put him at risk of life-threatening complications, which sadly took his life before his new caretakers’ dietary measures could show a benefit. “We are devastated,” Mary Martin, the Santa Fe shelter’s executive director, commented. “We were in a race against time to get the weight off Meow before he developed complications from his morbid obesity and we lost.”

Fat Thanks to Sunita K. for the tip!

Meow, country’s heaviest cat, dies | Pets – Yahoo! Shine

Slowing the rising rates of obesity in this country by just 1 percent a year over the next two decades would slice the costs of health care by $85 billion.

Keep obesity rates where they are now — well below a 33 percent increase that’s been expected by some — and the savings would hit nearly $550 billion over the same 20 years.

Those are two attention-grabbing conclusions from an analysis released this morning at the Weight of the Nation conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers from Duke University, RTI International and CDC prepared the analysis, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

It’s the latest work that shows the health care costs associated with obesity, and the stark financial consequence of the epidemic.

Fat Thanks to Sona S. for the tip!

Even A Small Slowdown In Obesity’s Rise Would Save Big Money : Shots – Health Blog : NPR

A new forecast on obesity in America has health experts fearing a dramatic jump in health care costs if nothing is done to bring it under control.

The projection, released Monday, warns that 42% of Americans may end up obese by 2030 up from 36% in 2010, and 11% could be severely obese, roughly 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight vs. 6% in 2010.

“If nothing is done, its going to hinder efforts for health care cost containment,” says Justin Trogdon, a research economist with RTI International, a non-profit organization in North Carolinas Research Triangle Park.

Extra weight takes a significant toll on health. It increases the risks of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, many types of cancer, sleep apnea and other debilitating and chronic illnesses.

“The obesity problem is likely to get much worse without a major public health intervention,” says the studys lead researcher, Eric Finkelstein, a health economist with the Duke University Global Health Institute.

In an earlier study, Finkelstein and experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that medical-related costs of obesity may be as high as $147 billion a year, or roughly 9% of medical expenditures.

Obesity could affect 42% of Americans by 2030 – USATODAY.com