NYC proposal would remind you that dessert is a sometimes food

By now, we’re all pretty sure that sugar is not great for our bodies. But cutting out dessert isn’t, well, cutting it, since sugar is in basically everything, and diabetes rates are skyrocketing.

In a bid toshow just how we’ve all become a bunch of sweet-toothed junkies,Inez Barron (D-Brooklyn)introduced a bill to the City Council this week that would require warning posters in restaurants.The posters would warn would-beeaters about “the risks of excessive intake of sugars and other carbohydrates for people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.”

By city estimates, 700,000 New Yorkers have diabetes, and a third of them don’t even know it. Meanwhile, 40 percent of elementary school-age kids are overweight, which can lead to diabetes.

There’s one big point that separates this proposal from the ongoing battle over sodiumlabeling. Besides the newly revisedfederal Dietary Guidelines advising us to limit sugar to no more than 10 percent of total calories eaten, there’s no exact number for how much sugar is too much. With salt, there’s at least a scientific consensus of2,300 grams per day as the upper limit.

The bill is currently being evaluated by the city’s health department.