Law and Regulation will not fix the problems of Health Care

Why these four "legislation and regulations" have worked completely fine and will continue to work. "schools have taken all sodas out of vending machines in an attempt to curb childhood obesity. However these slots have been populated by sport drinks and "juice". Both of these alternatives while perceived healthier have the same or more calories and an equivalent amount of sugar as soda." While sports drinks and juice may have the same amount of calories they have a wide verity of nutritious value while soda has almost none. According to Understanding Nutrition Tenth Edition in Appendix H 12-13 it states that Juice, bottled or canned has a significant amount of kcal, carbohydrates, iron, magnesium, potassium, sodium, zinc, Thiamin, Vitamin E, Niacin, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin C. While Soda only has kcal, carbohydrates, and sodium this is a huge difference in the amount of nutrients in this case a child would get from these two types of fluid. The book also states that sports drinks that contain carbohydrates are used to restore muscle glycogen after exercise this type of drink can also be used as a pregame beverage. So any child that is in an after school sport or even enrolled in a gym class can benefit from these sport drinks that you claim to be the same as soda. It turns out this was a great regulation. "Problem two is the fact that we have had to cut school funding to the point where they need the vending machines to help cover costs." Well it is a good thing they decided to have a regulation to put healthier drinks in them. "Many areas military, unemployment benefits, social security, and Medicare have contributed to budget constraint issues. I like to think the increase in Medicare and those who use it (older people), have moved funding away from helping the younger generations to preserving the old generations." I don't understand what this has to do with anything. This isn't another issue that shows how new drinks in vending machines is a failure. This is just other things that could help in school funding which isn't even the topic we are discussing. "Problem three, proper diet and nutrition need to be taught at home. Having the option for a soda at school shouldn't be an issue, as children would get one maybe two a week as a splurge as most healthy diets allow for." Yes, proper diet should be taught at home but is it? We live in a "fast food nation" with the economic crisis we are facing eating healthy is hard, so the parents are heading straight for a McDonalds (or any type of inexpensive food) and the kids will most likely grab a soda there as well. So vending machines with sport drinks in schools are better teachers of nutrition then most home lives are. "Second: The banning of trans-fats (New York, Phili, California). These fats are in particular found in oils used to deep fry food. So the obvious problem is people shouldn't be eating deep fried or fried foods to begin with." See statement above about living in a "fast food nation". "I don't care what oil you fry French fries in they'll never be healthy enough to eat more then twice a month." False, look at MyPyramid.gov it recommends daily the intake of oils. Canola oil is the best oil for you (if looked at by having the least amount of saturated fat) this oil is also used in a lot of fast food restaurants. In other food pyramids such as the Mediterranean Olive oil is recommended daily (Nutrition concepts and controversies 11th edition page 46). So what is so bad about recommended oil and a potato (French fry)? "With the ban in trans fats we (society) run the risk of now thinking fried foods are healthier and start eating more of them thus negating any gains." Where did this statement come from? "Third: Requiring chain restaurants to list nutrition content. First issue with this why penalize larger companies and not the smaller shops. I understand larger companies do have the economic resources to determine this information. That fact still doesn't mean that the Mom and Pop shop uses any healthier ingredients." Making chain restaurants list nutrition content is the best start for a bigger plan. By starting with these restaurants that affect the bigger part of the population it puts nutrition into people's faces so they can choose to make better decisions. I don't think this regulation was put into effect to exclude "Mom and Pop" shops it was just a way to start on a large scale and later pass on the same to the smaller restaurants. "Second issue eating out is going to be unhealthy it should be viewed as an occasional treat not as a consistent source of food." Eating out can not be defined as unhealthy. Very wise decisions can be made while eating out. If you are referring to fast food so many of them are coming out with salads, veggie burgers, fruit instead of fries and many other healthy choices. "Third if people don't realize what they're taking in unless it's printed along side the item, then how do they know what they are eating when preparing their own food?" Because they purchase the food they are preparing at a store with the nutritional information given to them on cans, boxes, or any other sort of packaging food comes in. "Fourth: Preventing certain restaurants in certain area's via zoning. The most famous case is in LA preventing any fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles. First they're discriminating based on store differences. Corporate Fast Food no you can't build, Mom and Pop greasy pizza joint go right a head and build. Second they're saying they know what's better for a town or area then the actual inhabitants." This is not an issue because they are not "preventing any fast food restaurants" in South LA. They just chose not allow new fast food restaurants to come in. How are they "trampling on personal freedoms"? It is not our call if a fast food restaurant comes to a town in the first place so why does it matter if there are no more? We can still have the personal freedoms to eat at the ones that already exist if we choose too. I hope everyone can see that these four regulations that my opponent has brought up have made a significant change in "the current trends in Health" and have "fixed" many problems. Thanks again.