{"id":104731,"date":"2017-09-06T14:30:52","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T18:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/?p=104731"},"modified":"2017-09-15T07:32:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T11:32:24","slug":"why-banning-energy-drinks-and-not-bananas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/why-banning-energy-drinks-and-not-bananas\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Banning Energy Drinks And Not Bananas?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On May 15, the municipality of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ville.valleyfield.qc.ca\/\">Salaberry-de-Valleyfield<\/a>, near Montreal, unveiled a policy to promote healthy eating.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to education, no one can be against that. There is always room for improvement.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that at the heart of this policy is a <strong>regulation prohibiting<\/strong> the supply, promotion, donation or sale of energy drinks in its parks and green spaces, particularly during activities and festivals.<\/p>\n<p>Promoting versus prohibiting &#8230; these are two very different approaches. The first one respects the intelligence of people, the other one denies it.<\/p>\n<p>In the face of criticism from its citizens, the city published <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ville.valleyfield.qc.ca\/actualites\/politique-alimentaire-et-boissons-energisantes-complement-dinformation\">some additional clarifications<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Only parks and green spaces owned by the City are subject to the regulation (not depanneurs and groceries&#8230; fortunately!);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It is not a matter of &#8220;telling people what to drink or eat&#8221; (although this is exactly what they do!);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It is believed that energy drinks are &#8220;trivialized&#8221; (meaning what?) and that their consumption &#8220;is worrysome&#8221; &#8230; (how so and so what?);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The city recalls the importance to inform consumers about the effects of energy drinks (but prohibiting is not informing: it is acting against the freedom of choice).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The city adds that unlike alcohol and tobacco, energy drinks are not subject to any regulations, hence the need to act.<\/p>\n<p>But as far as we know, there is no regulation for bananas, chewing gum and chocolate bars &#8230; does the city have to regulate that too?<\/p>\n<p>Also, are not people smart enough to make their own choices? If they can make children, vote, buy a house and embark on a career, they are probably wise enough to decide for themselves which fluids they shall absorb, don&#8217;t you think?<\/p>\n<p>The most delusional aspect of this argument is when the city says it&#8217;s proud of having been supported <em>&#8220;several times for its initiative by different organizations&#8221;<\/em>, citing two, the Association pour la sant\u00e9 publique du Qu\u00e9bec (ASPQ) and the Coalition Poids.<\/p>\n<p>But these two organizations are in fact just one single group, sharing the same address and the same funding that is largely provided by the government and your taxes.<\/p>\n<p>A single group with several ramifications whose radical agenda invariably involves limiting people&#8217;s freedom of choice, whether it be taxing sugary drinks, prohibiting tobacco, banning energy drinks, entrusting the distribution of cannabis to a Crown corporation, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Nice influence, really! Such an enlightened choice. We are quite impressed.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, for those still worry about energy drinks, here is the main conclusion of an extensive<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inspq.qc.ca\/pdf\/publications\/1167_BoissonsEnergisantes.pdf\"> 84-page study<\/a> published in 2010 by the National Institute of Public Health on energy drinks:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>According to the data consulted, <strong>moderate or occasional consumption of energy drinks appears to pose little risk to healthy adults.<\/strong> On the other hand, excessive consumption of energy drinks and concomitant use with alcohol or other drugs could cause adverse health effects due to their caffeine content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, there is no problem in consuming it normally. But to take 20 in a row through binge drinking and drugs and the like is another story. Really &#8230; no one could figure this out, right?<\/p>\n<p>But hey&#8230; isn&#8217;t it the same for bananas? What is the city waiting for to ban them also in its parks and festivals???<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_104727\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-104727\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/banane.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-104727 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/banane.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"445\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-104727\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eat 20 bananas in a row and yes, you will probably get sick. But is this a valid reason for proscribing them?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 15, the municipality of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, near Montreal, unveiled a policy to promote healthy eating. When it comes to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":104903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1741,223],"tags":[1014,1128,1015,1016,288],"class_list":["post-104731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-beverages","category-newsdep","tag-ban","tag-boissons-energisantes-en-2","tag-boissons-energisantes-en","tag-energy-drinks","tag-prohibition-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/energydrinks.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}