Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children • Hacker News Board

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#151

Post by munk-a » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

jachell wrote: post #84

thisisnico wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We tax alcohol and cigarettes because they are bad for you, but are totally fine with binge eating as much junk food as you like. Obesity is a massive epidemic. Heart attack and stroke are the number one killers, with obesity the highest cause. I'm all for putting warning labels on food showing the potential problems of overconsumption.

I bet if you ask any random person in the US if McDonald's is bad for you, they will say yes. I don't think the obesity epidemic is from lack of information.

I bet if you ask any random heroine addict if heroine is bad for them they will say yes - they'll just have more compelling reasons to keep using.

Addiction is a disease and junk food is super addicting.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#152

Post by buran77 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #124

bantunes wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caving to marketing designed to make children nag their parents.

It's a parenting issue then, because saying 'no' to a nagging child is basic parenting, always has been.

Parenting issue or not we protect children with laws all the time. Think no further than alcohol and tobacco products whose sale to minors is banned. Sure we could say "where are the parents" but that's not how reality works and good solutions are the one that work in reality not on paper.

Without legal push to make everyone work in unison there will always be an entity (a corporation) willing to invest enough to push the right buttons and coax people into the most unhealthy habits. After all the profits will belong to that company while the expense is paid by society. The overwhelming majority of individuals are completely unqualified to see through the onslaught of marketing (especially the covert kind), the social pressure, or even to understand the risks they're taking.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#153

Post by calibas » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #136

controversy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just encourage. What we’re finding is that the government has to be authoritarian. China welded people into their homes to keep them from spreading COVID. They literally caged them like animals and threw them into trucks. Now Mexico is denying children potato chips. Think about universal healthcare and alcohol. How much money is spent on alcohol related issues? The best answer is to ban its sale. Same for to…

That doesn't really go any way towards explaining why Canada, Europe or the Oceania[1] democracies have done so well in the crisis - nor does it explain how Brazil has done so poorly. I think there is more counter evidence then supporting evidence for authoritarian governments being necessary for dealing with pandemics. 1. Please note - comparatively well, Canada, Europe & Oceania aren't doing perfect they're just do…

Also, authoritarian governments often lie to protect their "authority". Their "authority" is based upon this illusion of infallibility, which goes against democratic principles like openness.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#154

Post by baconandeggs » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

aketchum wrote: post #81

chrisco255 wrote: post #43

Are they going to ban tacos too?

I spent quite a bit of time in Nogales, Mexico and ate as many tacos as I could get my hands on. Across the board they were far healthier than anything I can get from a fast food restaurant in the states. The tacos in (Sonora) Mexico generally consist of: Corn tortilla, meat, cabbage, onions, cilantro. Optional hot salsa.

Hot salsa is not optional.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#155

Post by controversy » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #143

controversy wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t matter. Look at those who try to ban guns and free speech. Millions use both responsibility every day. Besides science has shown little benefit to alcohol and tobacco and no benefit to junk food. What we need is to ban cooking at home. Government soup kitchens. All consumption needs to be documented and controlled.

> What we need is to ban cooking at home. This needs citation, seriously. Cooking at home, even cooking "insanely unhealthy" butter injected baked chicken at home, still seems to be a lot healthier for you than a hungry man dinner, so I think that the real issue is related to the preservatives and the salt & sugar required to mask those preservatives - that are used to unnaturally extend the self-life of pre-made and…

All of which would be banned by the government kitchens. I’ve found that people don’t really need or want choices. They want the government to take care of them from cradle to grave. No matter how crappy government, people want to give it more power. At this point we should.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#156

Post by jules » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

jachell wrote: post #84

thisisnico wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We tax alcohol and cigarettes because they are bad for you, but are totally fine with binge eating as much junk food as you like. Obesity is a massive epidemic. Heart attack and stroke are the number one killers, with obesity the highest cause. I'm all for putting warning labels on food showing the potential problems of overconsumption.

I bet if you ask any random person in the US if McDonald's is bad for you, they will say yes. I don't think the obesity epidemic is from lack of information.

There's a huge variation in how bad McDonald's food is wrt obesity, if you look at calories versus satiety. Probably the worst are sugary soft drinks and milkshakes. Potato fries are quite bad. Hamburgers are okayish. Salads are okay.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#157

Post by kube-system » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

seiferteric wrote: post #144

kube-system wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't eat insurance money. We are lucky to live in a age of a dramatic global decline in famine, but a large scale war or natural disaster could potentially unravel this progress in a devastating way. Subsidies can do preventative tasks that insurance cannot -- like securing additional capacity of food stores and farm land that farmers wouldn't normally do unless they were being paid to do so.

True, but the US gov't stockpiles grain, oil and other things for those kind of events. I don't see how subsidies help in those scenarios either.

Yes, but much like the PPE stockpile, those are only a stopgap measure and aren't really enough to be a comprehensive solution on their own.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#158

Post by s5300 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

thisisnico wrote: post #15

asveikau wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression is that teenage drinking and smoking was really huge in say, the 80s compared to today. Frankly, often when I hear somebody like the commenter above I think they may have had some rowdy teenage years in the 80s or thereabouts and is kind of projecting that onto today's youth. "The laws don't work!" Maybe it wouldn't have worked for them. But in the time since... Although, I don't think it's realistic to…

It's worked. Almost no-one I know smokes, and it's uncool to smoke.

Do you not see why this comment is complete anecdata?

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#159

Post by cpursley » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

It's interesting how quick people are to blame US corporations when it's the US government that subsidizes cheap carbs through the farm subsidy program (and on the flip-size in the US, subsidize the purchase of junk food via food stamps).

Also, banning sales to children doesn't solve the real culprit - parents buying the junk food for their own children. At least in America, watch any parent fill up their carts and pay attention to what they buy.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#160

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #86

This is a good idea, and the people in the comments are rightly pointing out sugar's problems. But just as problematic as sugar are vegetable oils which are in almost every packaged product you can buy at the grocery store. They cause all sorts of health problems because the vegetable oils are extremely reactive (due to being unsaturated fats and so having double bonds that can react with other molecules inside your…

That goes against everything I've been told about the types of fats. How much evidence is there for this?