Should unhealthy foods be banned?

[JamesDouglas]

Not everyone can or wants to eat healthy, so I don't think all unhealthy foods should be banned, but there are a few foods that are so poisonous that I think they should be banned. Pop which is full of sugar should be banned, processed meats that are full of nitrites i.e. bacon, sausage, pepperoni, ham, hot dogs, salami, etc. should be banned, fries and chips which are full of acrylamides should be banned.

If you have to go to McDonald's don't get pop and fries. Get a small hamburger or cheeseburger and water and that's it, don't get a Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, McChicken, Chicken Nuggets, or Filet o' Fish. Make smarter choices.

Do you think certain unhealthy foods that are known to contain poisonous preservatives and chemical compounds should be banned?

 

[Keebler Elf]

Nope. Government should not be banning foods people choose to eat.

Tax it more? Sure. But ban it? No way.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

Everything in moderation. A pop or two a week will not kill you, if you are concerned about the sugar then take the diet pop. ( If you get pop from a soda fountain, pulse the dispenser and you will be getting more syrup and less water making for a less watery drink ) Eat less chips and less cold cuts, the worse are hot dogs. If you order at McDs, get prefer to get two double hamburgers which is pretty tasteless, but if you ask for some hot mustard it make it much better. BTW- almost nobody orders the small double hamburgers, so they do not have any laying around and have to make it to order for you. This means you get a hot burger and not a cold shelf burger. No fries for me.

 

[LKD]

sure why not.. as long as the government guarantees healthy food are available for cheap too. no one wants to walk into an organic store and pay an arm/leg for food there

 

[LKD]

Everything in moderation. A pop or two a week will not kill you, if you are concerned about the sugar then take the diet pop. ( If you get pop from a soda fountain, pulse the dispenser and you will be getting more syrup and less water making for a less watery drink ) Eat less chips and less cold cuts, the worse are hot dogs. If you order at McDs, get prefer to get two double hamburgers which is pretty tasteless, but if you ask for some hot mustard it make it much better. BTW- almost nobody orders the small double hamburgers, so they do not have any laying around and have to make it to order for you. This means you get a hot burger and not a cold shelf burger. No fries for me.

diet pop is worse than regular pop... because of the fake sweetener they use. Want cancer down the road? drink diet pop

 

[Ceiling Cat]

If Aspirin was introduced today, it would not pass the stringent test to be approved as a drug let alone an over the counter drug.
Artificial sweeteners have passed years of modern testing.

 

[K Douglas]

Why should it be banned? Back in the day people consumed tons of trans fats (vegetable oils, lard, shortening were the methods of frying), ate more red meat, more eggs, poured copious amounts of salt over everything yet we had lower rates of heart disease, cancer and obesity.

There are more chemical additives found in food today than ever before. Particularly with frozen, prepared and yes even low calorie foods. Diet pop is one of the worst offenders.

Instead of banning foods we should be educating the consumer about choices. I'm all for fast food joints having to make available the caloric and fat count on all their items.

 

[simon482]

since i recently decided to quit drinking when i sit down at night i have a pepsi with my dinner, just one a day. more often than not i don't finish it. gov't gets involved in our day to day lives enough having them put a ban on foods is just another step to a nanny/police state and lets the people who don't want to take responsibility for their actions get a little further ahead. start banning bad food and people will start suing companies cuz they are fat.

have a little will power and if you don't want it, don't eat it.

 

[rld]

If Aspirin was introduced today, it would not pass the stringent test to be approved as a drug let alone an over the counter drug.
Artificial sweeteners have passed years of modern testing.

Wrong on both counts. Aspirin would easily pass FDA testing today. Easily. You should also of course know that if the hundreds of studies that have been done on the effectiveness and safety of aspirin showed it to be a public health risk that it could be pulled from the shelves.

Artificial sweeteners, which are not drugs nor marketed to treat illness are not tested in the same way as drugs are. Your comment about modern testing is at best misleading.

 

[MattRoxx]

I'd really try to avoid both diet pop, and McDonalds fully. There are many 'treat' meals far less bad for you.

If you have time to look, here is a quick page with 14 foods you should never eat.

I agree, people should individually "ban" unhealthy foods from their diet. The government already interferes too much with our personal choices.
It's a shame that McDonalds can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing while real food like kale, broccoli, beets etc have no advertising campaign behind them, but there is plenty of information available online for anyone who chooses to get off the S.A.D. diet and eat healthy.

What I'd like to see though, is mandatory labeling for GMO produce and products so that we could make informed decisions on our food choices in the supermarket.

And it's a tough sell but I firmly believe that every few years people should objectively analyze their diet and figure out what to keep and what to discard. We are very often creatures of habit and will get locked into a type of diet that doesn't change from high school even though health, metabolism and nutritional needs vary over time.

 

[gww]

Lets go all out and ban breathing.

 

[rafterman]

Just put fat fucks in state controlled diet centers.

 

[Scarey]

That's unfortunate about Diet Cola.Caffeine free Pepsi is one of my "treat" drinks twice a week.I don't think anything should be banned, but I think taxing it and making mandatory correct packaging labels should be law.I never got into these energy drinks but from researching them I think they are as unhealthy as cigarettes long term.About 2 years ago(in the shadow of 40) I started cutting out processed food.I was amazed at all of the(to me) "normal"body reactions I had that went away.Acid reflux,fatigue swings, bloating,even sweating(yup..some of the foods made me sweat).

I have not had a fast food meal in over a year and bake all my own breads,meals and treats.Bake your own.....only way you really know what goes into your body.unhealthy foods will not go away.They have wayy too big a lobby group behind them.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/07/27/f-food-guide-70.html

 

[Petzel]

At least aspartame doesn't rot the teeth like regular pop with sugar. Dentists say it's the worst thing for teeth out there.

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

I have to say big NO. Never ban anything, leave us to 'free choice'. Allow the government to ban one thing, and it would snowball. The only time government should step in is when food is 'unsafe'.
At the end of the day, healthy/unhealthy eating is about accountability

This ^

Life is unhealthy. You have a 100% chance of dying. Lets ban people while we're at it

 

[simon482]

life is the only std there is no cure for.

 

[JamesDouglas]

I'd really try to avoid both diet pop, and McDonalds fully. There are many 'treat' meals far less bad for you.

If you have time to look, here is a quick page with 14 foods you should never eat.

On that list under swordfish there's a link to 12 fishes you should never eat. According to that, shrimp is the dirtiest of the dozen.


"Imported Shrimp


Why It's Bad: Imported shrimp actually holds the designation of being the dirtiest of the Dirty Dozen, says Cufone, and it's hard to avoid, as 90 percent of shrimp sold in the U.S. is imported. "Imported farmed shrimp comes with a whole bevy of contaminants: antibiotics, residues from chemicals used to clean pens, filth like mouse hair, rat hair, and pieces of insects," Cufone says. "And I didn't even mention things like E. coli that have been detected in imported shrimp." Part of this has to do with the fact that less than 2 percent of ALL imported seafood (shrimp, crab, catfish, or others) gets inspected before its sold, which is why it's that much more important to buy domestic seafood."

 

[MrJake]

I'd really try to avoid both diet pop, and McDonalds fully. There are many 'treat' meals far less bad for you.

If you have time to look, here is a quick page with 14 foods you should never eat.

No offense to you Kathleen, but that list seems silly to me, never eat corn? Sorry, you lose me there.

 

[rex_baner]

Why ban it? Anyone who eats unhealthy does it by choice. It's not like we aren't aware fast food is bad for you, so should it be removed? Everyone knows how to be healthy. Besides.... if they wont remove ciggs, why would they remove unhealthy food?

 

[larry]

whenever someone talks about "banning" foods, funny how it's the ones they think are bad. if we all get together and ban everything somebody thinks is bad, what's left...no wheat, no meat, no milk, no city water. whew! this will be tough.