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France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

bbc.com

61–70 of 177 posts

Re: France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

#61
post #39
post #14

Is it just me who's thinking that individuals in modern societies are not capable anymore of making meaningful decisions, including how much to drink? We're sacrificing freedom here because we became incapable. That scares me.

Giant and strong Industries are manipulating us. They invest billions for this. We are too weak to fight against this, these overwhelming number of battlefronts : it's too difficult, too complex, too time consuming, so we give up. We have no choice but to give up on so many of them. We have no choice. This regulation will help us take less sugar in. And that's a good thing.

No its not a good thing. Nothing stops people from following people like Stallman. This is a poor execuse for over-interfering statism and it will backfire with event like Brexit/Trump.

Re: France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

#62

When I was living in France and Switzerland free refills were basically unheard of. About the only place that I ever found that had free refills was IKEA.

Mostly just KFC and Subway have been doing that, and it only started like 10 years ago at most, this may be why.

Re: France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

#63
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I remember my vacation in the states (in the South). I got served a absolutely massive glass of coca-cola with my dinner. When I had finally managed to finish it a waiter came and refilled the bloody thing when I wasn't paying attention. How can you enjoy your meal with that much to drink? Are you from a place where there is a cultural taboo against only drinking part of the beverage a restaurant serves you? Saying…

Are you from a place where it’s culturally accepted to let left-over drinks simply go to waste?

Yes

Re: France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

#65

Does it affect drinks containing sugar exclusively, or does this also affect sugar-free soft drinks?

"Interdiction de la mise à disposition de boissons à volonté, gratuites ou pour un prix forfaitaire, avec ajout de sucres ou d'édulcorants de synthèse" : it affects drinks with added sugar and/or synthetic sweeteners (e.g. Coca Cola Zero).

Re: France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

#68

I'd rather live in a country that provides comprehensive free health care and limits soda consumption, than one that allows me the "freedom" to consume as much sugar as possible and makes me pay for the consequences. I must be a radical hippie leftist: I think we should tax the sh-t out of refined sugar and subsidize organic vegetable farms.

That's a very interesting debate to have. FTR: I remember reading somewhere something about a discussion between the USSR and the USA after WWII that went more or less like this: "Better to have a belly full with state jobs than jobless and hungry free men".

You still have the freedom to drink as much as you want in France. This is not about the freedom to drink, this is about fighting obesity.

Re: France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

#69

French (expat) here, can't remember ever seeing any when I lived in France. Have I always been at the wrong restaurants?

That's what I was wondering. I haven't spent much time in France, but in, e.g., Italy, I never saw the US-style "unlimited soda refills". I was wondering if France was different to the extent they felt the need to ban it.

Re: France bans unlimited sugary drink refills

#70
post #14

Is it just me who's thinking that individuals in modern societies are not capable anymore of making meaningful decisions, including how much to drink? We're sacrificing freedom here because we became incapable. That scares me.

The freedom of having a society full of overweight people? This decision looks quite reasonable to me and has nothing to do with freedom.
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