Originally published April 25 2015
By order of the King, day care children shall drink less juice
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) At the same time that some lawmakers in New York State are pushing to expand late-term abortions and allow anyone to murder unborn babies at any time during pregnancy by shooting poison directly into their hearts, the Empire Nanny State is attempting once again to ban more beverages from public consumption.
The New York City Board of Health has decreed that all licensed city day care facilities must now limit how much juice children are allowed to consume. According to reports, children at day care centers must be at least two years of age before they are allowed to drink any juice onsite. And for those two years of age or older, only four ounces per day of juice will be allowed.
And any old juice simply won't do. Juice products spiked with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other additives are prohibited, with only "100% juice" products allowed. Under the old rules, children as young as eight months old were allowed to drink up to six ounces of "100% juice" daily, but that will no longer be the case.
The new rules, which have been published in the city's Health Code, are said to be in line with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommendations that a majority of children's recommended fruit intake come from whole fruit. Juice products, claim health authorities, are contributing to obesity and other chronic health problems in many of the same ways that soda pop beverages are.
"Sedentary" time restricted to 30 minutes per week rather than 60 minutes per day
The rule changes also address the types of activities day care center children will be allowed to engage in on a daily basis. Rather than be allowed to spend up to an hour per day watching television and playing games on tablet devices, day care center children will now be restricted to only one half-hour of screen time per week.
This 30-minute-per-week limit on "sedentary" time will not include nap time or time spent reading, doing puzzles or painting, according to authorities. It will only restrict mind-numbing sedentary activities like TV-watching that have been scientifically shown to rot children's brains and make them dumber, especially during their early developmental years.
Limiting children's sugar intake and sedentary time is admittedly a positive thing, but should the government be in charge of mandating these requirements? Some New York City parents don't think so, and they've been quick to denounce the move, likening it to ex-NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's nanny state restrictions on beverage sizes.
"It's like the big soda ban under Bloomberg!" stated Brooklyn mom Victoria Clark to the New York Daily News. "TV can be educational, and not all juices are bad."
Other parents, however, are supportive of the restrictions.
"I would never send my kid to a day care where they are watching TV," commented Elizabeth Clements, a mother of three from TriBeCa, in support of the new rules.
According to an official notice published in the City Record, 15% of three-year-olds and 17% of four-year-olds from low-income families are now obese. Because of this, says the Board of Health, public health measures need to be taken to curb this epidemic and give the next generation a better chance at health and wellness.
"Dietary and lifestyle habits and preferences developed at a very early age can often persist and may have [a] profound impact on an individual's health later on," wrote the Board in the City Record.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.lifenews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com
http://www.myfoxny.com
http://www.psmag.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
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