XD Canada is just as bad as America in some areas like in my own province for example its pretty much the exact same as the states obesity wise.

Folks must have fought about that for the legal rights sake in this Soft Drink situation, I know that. I'm not sure exactly where stands the Health Insurance policy in the State, but in Qc, government covers the health expenses of the population and it is a fact that weight related problem are increasing, needed therefore to be covered by Health Insurance (at least here). I understand that overregulation is a dangerous path to take for autorities, but in my opinion, at some point, individual bad health habits do become a matter of society.

I actually stand by what I say in this situation, but I do recognize that my opinion on that matter is quite drastic. But thanx for your interesting input :)

Sorry for this little ''not on the subject'' post, it was not my intention to hijack the thread!

^THIS.

Because we all know how poutine is great for the tummy. LOL

More on that - it's not just soda. It's all sugary drinks. Sweetened teas. Juices, smoothies. (most smoothies are NOT health foods).

So, why just the soda industry picked on? They would just spin on it anyway and make another addictive drink and people would continue to buy it.

My mother in law drinks about half of her calories for the day (if not more). She drinks it in milk, sweetened kefir and orange juice. For her, she sees it as "healthy" because it at least has some nutritional value, but it's still too much sugar for most people, drinking like that, even the healthier stuff would lead to obesity.

I do agree with you on this. Juices can be as bad. I guess they thought ''gotta start somewhere''. People in general will agree that soda are unhealthy (even they will still drink it). Picking on things like juices (that people usually think they are healthy) would probably just had messed up things even more... I don't know. That are major hazardous fields to go into.

This country needs more Federal regulation so people can make informed choices.

It makes a world of difference to me if I can visit a restaurant with basic nutritional information on the menu rather than having to go online to find it.

People might think twice about ordering a supersized Coke if 410 calories were written next to it.

My personal favorite used to be the 32oz shake. Just googled it now and it was 1160 calories. Hmm. That would have stopped me.

That just seems odd to me as an American. I was curious if there were any statistics and I found something from Howard University Medical center that said 50,000 Americans had a BMI of 50 or above, that would be someone who is 5'5 and weighed 300 lbs. I didn't see anything for higher BMIs though.

Although that isn't a great number, it is still a fairly low percentage.

There are so many more "truthful" things that can be done.

Like sweeteners - anything under 5 calories a serving can be counted as zero calories. So, that teaspoon of splenda ins not really zero calories.

And Yes, definitely seeing the calorie count, even though its an estimation, is still HUGELY helpful because sometimes you can't tell by the ingredient list.

Though, you might be surprised at people. One time I was standing in a long line at Chipotle. It was the first (and only time) I had been there. I was so happy for the calorie count. The family near us all had their menus too. The mom said, "Oh, I think I'm going to get this. That isn't so bad." The dad and teenaged son said they were going to get something else. She looked it up and informed them that it was over 1200 calories. The dad was like, "I don't care how many calories it has. I want it." And that's what he ordered. So, you have to want to care too.

With that said though, a few weeks back I had a really horrible dental visit. On the way out I decided I wanted to get msyelf a shamrock shake. That would be my lunch. I had every intention of getting the large. Then I saw the calorie count. After I saw that, I got the small - which was my lunch for the day, but I was SURE hungry come dinner, but was glad I knew I hadn't gone over for the day despite the sweet small shake that cost me over 400 calories. if the calorie count wasn't listed? I would have totally gotten the large and been in denial as to the real damage. Denial is HUGE

After being in Italy, I'd have to say yes. Granted, I'm over weight, but I usually feel normal to small compared with the people I see on a day to day basis, but I felt like an overweight elephant there. The only people who were even slightly overweight were at least 65, and even they weren't that big. It was embarassing. And yet I couldn't barely eat a 2 course meal, while they were regularily eating 3, 4, & 5 courses. I guess the difference is processed food, so I'm trying to cut a lot of it from my diet.

Coming from outside the US, where slim/healthy is the norm.... I believe it. Once you step over that border, you can see right away that weight is a different kind of "normal".

My parents hate seeing calories and the like on menus - it offends their red-blooded raised-by-Depression-era-parents American sensibilities or something. In New York state it goes by county - I live in a county that doesn't print calories on menus, but if I cross the river they're all there.

In NYC the soda ban issue is also probably an issue because the people drinking all that soda tend to be low-income and probably dependent on state welfare programs - NY state has more Medicaid spending than any other to my knowledge and we can't afford it. But still, all the money poured into studies and time exerted in bill writing and all that re: soda ban...there are totally worse and more urgent things to focus on.

See, I was just in Europe this summer at the seaside and I was shocked at the number of overweight children and women and even men. At my 175-180, I was AVERAGE there whereas when I have been there in the past, I would have been very large.

They are driving more, walking less and eating more processed foods.

I have been to these same places 4 times before and never saw obese children. This time I saw MANY.... totally shocking.

Croatian coast - full of Croats, Italians, Germans, Austrians, Slovenes, etc.

Other cultures are catching up. It's 2-3 generations and that's it!