Fast Food Ban Failure: The Fat Get Fatter

A while back, New York’s former Mayor Bloomberg tried to institute a super-size soda ban. He wasn’t stopping anyone from drinking a gallon of sugar pop. He just wanted to make it harder to sell the gallon size cups. After much mockery, the ban was shot down by the courts. In Los Angeles, the local nannies on the City Council went a step further. They decided to ban fast food restaurants in a neighborhood that was suffering from epidemic levels of obesity. The theory went if you cut off the fast food supply; people will make healthier food choices. Yeah, the EXACT OPPOSITE happened. In fact, the obesity rates shot up in the restricted neighborhood far more than in the rest of the country. So much for that ban.

This all went down back in 2008 at a 32-square mile section of the city. According to the ban, no more freestanding fast food restaurants could be built in this area. Of course, that didn’t stop fast food places from opening in strip malls. It also didn’t stop folks from crossing over the line for a cheeseburger and onion rings. While the obesity rate in the country went up from 57% to 58%, in this burg the rates went from 63% to 75%.

(Editor’s note: dddaaaaaammmmnnnnnnn………)

Moral of the story: these bans failed. Walking the extra few blocks didn’t do the trick. And when it comes to fast food, they’ll have to pry those cheesy nachos from our cold dead hands. But don’t worry, diabetes, heart disease, and the inability to actually physically get out of harm’s way will make those hands cold and dead faster.