Ha, look at this glutton ripping open sugar packets at a lunch counter and pouring them down his greedy throat! We can identify with the disgusted expressions on the faces of his neighbors as they look askance at his depraved behavior. Show some class, sugar packet dude! It's like we're sitting outside at Gemma savoring a fine Montepulciano while some Bowery bum chugs Carlo Rossi from a jug on the sidewalk. OR IS IT? We don't want to spoil anything, but if you watch to the end of the minute-long video, you might have your mind blown by a little message from the Health Department.
This Public Service Announcement is the latest video installment in the Health Department's "Pouring On the Pounds" campaign—you may recall their previous PSA, which showed a guy chugging a glass of fat. The Health Department says their latest ad features the same young man, "seated at a lunch counter and blithely stuffing his mouth with packets of sugar while other diners look on in horror. The irony is that they’re taking in just as much—if not more—from the sweetened sodas they’re sipping." A large serving of regular soda can contain the equivalent of 26 packets of sugar.
It's always nice seeing smug soda-swillers get their ironic comeuppance, but it seems like they have the last laugh, because Albany has repeatedly failed to implement a tax on sugary beverages. On the other hand, there's probably nothing to laugh about here, because a study of 91,000 women found that those who drank one or more sugary drink each day were 83% more likely to develop diabetes over a four-year period than those who drank less than one a day. In NYC alone, diabetes causes 3,000 amputations and 4,700 deaths every year. And that's one to grow on.
