From the CDC:
- Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.
- The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.
- In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.
We should ban flavors in food, as it is attracting children and causing them to be obese. Enjoying the taste of food sets could set in motion a lifelong addiction (yes, food addiction is real) and obesity, resulting in increased risk of diabetes which kills tens of thousands Americans each year per the CDC.
While we're at it, a study published in the American Journal of Public health found:
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 25, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Consuming super-sized, flavored alcoholic beverages greatly increases underage drinkers' risk of injury, a new study finds.
"These findings raise important concerns about the popularity and use of [flavored alcohol beverages] among youth," wrote Alison Albers of Boston University School of Public Health and colleagues.
[...]
Those who said they drink super-sized versions of flavored alcohol beverages were more than six times as likely to say they'd suffered alcohol-related injuries as those who did not consume such beverages, the researchers noted.
We need to ban flavorings of any type in alcohol, as it is attracting underage drinking and is directly attributable to "injuries". Alcohol is also an addictive substance, so by attracting youth with flavored alcohol we are setting them up to battle a lifelong addiction with potentially dire consequences (liver disease, death by driving while impaired, etc).
Those of you in New York should lobby Schumer to include the banning of flavors in food and alcohol to his bill, to ensure that it truly protects children from every possible ill due to flavorings.