Mayor Bloomberg proposes super-sized soda ban

I can't recall whether or not you have expressed agreement with the notion that the GOP is waging a War on Women, but if you have, I would like to understand how Bloomberg's fiat on breast feeding is not part of that war.

Specifically, how is the decision whether or not to breast feed any less a personal choice anchored in the ownership of a woman's body, than abortion?

How do you feel about laws that require a woman to see a sonogram of her fetus before she has an abortion? Such laws aren't preventing women from having abortions.

NYC hospitals crack down on junk food
Published September 24, 2012
Associated Press

NEW YORK – People nervously waiting around in New York City hospitals for loved ones to come out of surgery can't smoke. In a few months from now, they can't have a supersized fast-food soda. And soon, they won't even be able to get a candy bar out of the vending machine or a piece of fried chicken from the cafeteria.

In one of his latest health campaigns, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is aiming to banish sugary and fatty foods from both public and private hospitals.

In recent years, the city's 15 public hospitals have cut calories in patients' meals and restricted the sale of sugary drinks and unhealthy snacks at vending machines. But now the city is tackling hospital cafeteria food, too. And the Healthy Hospital Food Initiative is expanding its reach: In the past year, 16 private hospitals have signed on.

Earlier this month, the city moved to ban the sale of big sodas and other sugary drinks at fast-food restaurants and theaters, beginning in March. Critics say the hospital initiative is yet another sign that Bloomberg is running a "nanny state," even though the guidelines are voluntary and other cities -- including Boston -- have undertaken similar efforts.

Hospitals say it would be hypocritical of them to serve unhealthy food to patients who are often suffering from obesity and other health problems.

"If there's any place that should not allow smoking or try to make you eat healthy, you would think it'd be the hospitals," Bloomberg said Monday. "We're doing what we should do and you'll see, I think, most of the private hospitals go along with it."

The cafeteria crackdown will ban deep fryers, make leafy green salads a mandatory option and allow only healthy snacks to be stocked near the cafeteria entrance and at cash registers. At least half of all sandwiches and salads must be made or served with whole grains. Half-size sandwich portions must be available for sale.

"People sometimes right now don't have healthy options," said Christine Curtis, the city Health Department's director of nutrition strategy. "So you are there at 2 in the morning and maybe your only choice is soda and chips."

Marcelle Scott brought her own chips and soda into the lobby of Manhattan's privately operated St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital -- there was no vending machine in sight -- as she waited for her daughter to give birth Monday. It wasn't the first time the unemployed security guard from the Bronx got the "munchies" for junk food to keep calm while awaiting the outcome of a loved one's medical procedure.

"I like my Snickers and my Mars Bars -- especially if I'm nervous for somebody who's inside," she said.

Most hospitals have already overhauled their vending machines by allowing only two types of 12-ounce high-calorie beverages at each vending machine -- and they must be featured on the lowest rack. Hospital vending machines have also swapped out most baked goods for snacks like granola bars and nuts.

At privately run Montefiore Medical Center, which operates several hospitals in the Bronx, changes have been under way for a couple of years.

"We took ice cream out of the cafeterias and began serving more whole grains," said Dr. Andrew Racine, chief medical officer. "We changed white rice to brown rice."

Herbert Padilla, a retired Manhattan hairdresser, was sitting a few feet from a giant coke machine Monday in an outpatient waiting area at St. Luke's-Roosevelt, where he was undergoing treatment for a nerve disorder. He said that in general, he supports efforts to keep people from overdosing on junk food, but "we shouldn't be forced into this by a hospital."

"The mayor is going too far with this. It's ridiculous," he said. "We're being told what to eat and what to drink. We're not living in a free country anymore."
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/24/nyc-hospitals-crack-down-on-junk-food/#ixzz27SAlaLty

But the NYC breastfeeding initiative does not prohibit the woman's choice to bottle feed her baby while in the hospital. It doesn't interfere with her choice at all.

they were being pressured to breast feed, then the policy should be re-considered.

...the NYC breastfeeding initiative does not prohibit the woman's choice to bottle feed her baby while in the hospital. It doesn't interfere with her choice at all.

The Health Department declined to say how many private hospitals have signed onto its Healthy Hospital Food Initiative, which a source said calls for participants to adopt the city’s food standards for vending machines, cafeterias and patient meals, such as:

* No meals featuring deep-fried food, trans fats, 2% or whole milk, fruit in syrup, or salty food.

* All full-size portions of sandwiches, salads, and entrees must contain 650 calories or less.

* All beverages will be 12 ounces or smaller, except water and seltzer — and water and seltzer will be at least 25% cheaper than other drinks.

* Baked chips, nuts or pretzels instead of candy bars in vending machines.

* Desserts and other sweets will contain 250 calories or less.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bloomy-latest-nanny-state-crackdown-curb-junk-food-hospitals-article-1.1166175#ixzz27SHaAq1o

Emergency Room Visitors Prefer Junk Food, Hospital CEO Says September 19, 2012
By Janet Upadhye, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

FORT GREENE — The head of a private Brooklyn hospital defended his junk-food filled emergency room vending machines, saying people prefer it to healthy snacks when they're in the middle of a crisis.

Brooklyn Hospital Center President and CEO Richard B. Becker made the assertion at a Community Board 2 meeting, saying he had no reason to swap out the sugar and fat-filled goodiesfor something more nutritious.

"We are not responsible for what people eat," he said. "They make their own choices.”

He added that in "times of crisis," most people prefer something "delicious" like junk food.

Becker made the comments earlier this month in response to Brooklyn resident Joe Gonzales, who said he made a recent trip to the hospital.

"I saw five vending machines in the ER waiting room.," he said.

"All of them were filled with junk food and drinks. None of them had healthy alternatives."

In a visit to the hospital, DNAinfo New York found that the five fully-stocked vending machines in the ER took up the entire length of one wall. Selections included two machines devoted to sugary drinks ranging from Hawaiian Punch, to Lipton Iced Tea, to Fanta.

Another machine sold ice cream — with Good Humor ice cream sandwiches, popsicles, and other treats. Another vending machine sold chips, cookies and candy bars — including Dipsy Doodles, Kit Kat bars, M&Ms and other treats.

Another machine sold hot coffee.

Becker later added, "The Brooklyn Hospital Center advocates healthy living in many ways."

His response came as a surprise to some, especially at a time when junk food is a hot topic in New York City.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's trans-fat and smoking bans were joined by a ban on oversized soda drinks. The Department of Health offered promotions to get people to use their food stamps at farmers' markets, and a new pilot program is in the works in the Bronx called Shop Healthy NYC that asks bodegas to stock their shelves with more produce and vegetables and cut down on the chips.

“I am appalled that the medical community didn’t want to take a greater lead in providing healthy food,” Gonzales said after the meeting.

Karen Goldman, an associate professor at Long Island University Brooklyn’s School of Public Health, who also attended the meeting, thinks her students can do better and promised to compile a list of healthy alternatives.

Goldman said she plans to present Becker with a list of all the healthy foods that can replace junk food in the vending machines after the research has been completed.

“LIU Brooklyn and Brooklyn Hospital have a wonderful partnership and I saw this as an irresistible public health challenge that I felt comfortable raising because of our long standing relationship,” she said.

“It’s also a great learning opportunity for the students about advocacy, communicating with powerful decision-makers, research and strategizing.”

Becker did not immediately return a call for comment.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120919/fort-greene/emergency-room-visitors-prefer-junk-food-hospital-ceo-says#ixzz27SKNUFmv

Locking up formula doesn't intefere (at all) with a woman's choice to breast feed?

Locking up formula doesn't intefere (at all) with a woman's choice to breast feed?

There are lots of experts who have lots of opinions about New York City’s new plan to encourage breast-feeding in new moms by urging hospitals not to give them baby formula. Advocates praise the move as a way to limit the influence of formula manufacturers on new mothers. Skeptics wonder whether the policy will shame women who choose not to breast-feed.

As for my sister-in-law, Rachel, who recently gave birth in a Manhattan hospital to her first child, she knows firsthand how nurses pushing formula can impact an inexperienced mother. After her C-section, a nurse offered to give her newborn a bottle “to make it easier on you.” Exhausted and uncertain, she agreed — even though she’d intended to breast-feed. “I was a new mom,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Those are exactly the sorts of moms that Mayor Michael Bloomberg hopes to influence with his voluntary Latch On NYC initiative. When it goes into effect in September, nurses in participating hospitals will be instructed not to give formula to babies unless there’s a medical reason to do so or unless moms specifically request it (they’ll first have to listen to a mandatory speech about why breast is best). Formula will be locked away like medication, and staff will be required to sign it out, track its distribution and report those figures to the Health Department, which presumably wants to know whether the new policy will cut formula use citywide. Twenty-seven of the city’s 40 hospitals have agreed to participate.

Sound extreme? Not to Melissa Bartick, an internist who is on the board of the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. “I can’t even get an alcohol wipe without swiping my badge,” says Bartick. “Hospitals lock up just about everything from Band-Aids to gauze. The question we should be asking is why aren’t they locking up formula? The reason is because they get it for free.”

Typically, formula manufacturers stock hospitals with free samples of their products to encourage brand-name adoption. Many hospitals across the country still give away diaper bags packed with formula samples to new moms, despite increasing awareness that the practice may stymie breast-feeding. That practice is changing, though: many hospitals nationwide have voluntarily banned the bags, and in July, Massachusetts became the second state to go “bag-free,” with all 49 of its maternity hospitals pledging to spurn the formula freebies. (Rhode Island was first in 2011.)

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises moms to breast-feed exclusively for about six months, then continue breast-feeding while offering new foods. In July, an annual gathering of state AAP leaders voted to support a resolution entitled “Divesting from Formula Marketing in Pediatric Care” that would call on pediatricians “not to provide formula company gift bags, coupons and industry-authored handouts to the parents of newborns and infants in office and clinic settings.”

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/01/bloomberg-on-breast-feeding-will-locking-up-formula-really-help-new-moms/#ixzz27SQ5hGha

mothers as much as trying to make sure they understand (and have not just heard in a vague and passing way somewhere) about what exactly the benefits of breastfeeding vs. formula

In terms of the sonogram before an abortion, I don't actually understand why it's being seen as an invasive or intrusive requirement. At least she has proof positive that she's actually pregnant (there have been many people who have had falsely positive pregnancy tests).

But the NYC breastfeeding initiative does not prohibit the woman's choice to bottle feed her baby while in the hospital. It doesn't interfere with her choice at all.