New York City’s partial ban on beverages may have given the impression that the city wasn’t really interested about countering obesity, but a new program, based on fruits and vegetables rather than aspartame, may go over better. The city’s “Health Bucks” program creates a quasi-currency that physicians can give to overweight patients, who can then use it to buy fruits and vegetables at the farmer’s markets in the city. The program and its significance are explained in a Natural News article at Hungry for Change:
New York City has been in the forefront in prior moves to limit the reach of overweight. I immediately think of its restaurant bans on smoking and then trans fats. The law pushing people to drink aspartame was a mistake, given the scientific studies linking aspartame to rapid weight gain — and it was quickly overturned in court. But perhaps that was an isolated step backward in a city that is trying to find a way to be healthier.
