NYC Health Department’s “Man Eating Sugar”

Drink 16 of these and call me in the morning…

New York City has been running an ongoing (and awesome) campaign to help fight obesity. You may recall I shared one of their subway posters back in January. It was a disturbing image of a man whose legs have been amputated because of his addiction to soda–and all the horrific diabetic complications that can lead to.

Their whole poster campaign caused a lot of controversy. Some liked it, but others were, of course, offended. But now the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is picking up a piece of the campaign. The CDC will begin to air the NYC Health Department’s “Man Eating Sugar” spot–a 30-second video that originally aired on YouTube. It will be part of a national obesity prevention media effort.

The video depicts three people sitting next to each other at a lunch counter. One is drinking fruit juice, the other a soda, and the one in the middle is opening up 16 packages of sugar and just eating them. The people on either side of the guy eating the sugar are appalled-but the truth is they are all eating the same amount of sugar.

I love it, sans the low-fat milk they recommend as an alternative at the end.

Of course, who knows if it will work. Or simply serve to upset a lot more people. But if you ask me, the more people that talk about it, or argue about it, the better! It means the message is getting heard. And it’s high time someone other than me start opening people’s eyes to the truth about what’s really causing our obesity epidemic.

An epidemic that has far-reaching effects…well beyond the physical implications. It hits us ALL socially and economically.
New York’s commuter trains are considering new cars with seats able to hold 400 pounds. Blue Bird is widening the front doors on its school buses so wider kids can fit. And at both the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, seats are wider than their predecessors by 1 to 2 inches. And if you think all these changes aren’t costing you…you’re wrong.

And this is just the beginning folks. I’ve got a stack of statistics that would shock you. Too many to get into today…so don’t miss Monday’s issue where I’ll lay it all out for you…