Saving Gotham

by Tom Farley

  Chapter 5: “Are you sure this will save lives?”

  Early press reports on trans fats include “Hold That Fat, New York Asks Its Restaurants,” New York Times, August 11, 2005; “The Panic Du Jour: Trans Fats in Foods,” New York Times, August 14, 2005; and “Grease and Desist: City Eateries Told to Upgrade Oils,” New York Post, August 11, 2005.

  On the growth of the obesity epidemic, see K. M. Flegal et al., “Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among U.S. Adults, 1999–2000,” Journal of the American Medical Association 288 (2002): 1723–27; and C. L. Ogden et al., “Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in the United States, 1999–2004,” Journal of the American Medical Association 296 (2006): 1549–55. On deaths associated with obesity, see K. M. Flegal et al., “Excess Deaths Associated with Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity,” Journal of the American Medical Association 293 (2005): 1861–67. Trends in portion sizes from the 1970s to the 1990s are described in S. J. Nielsen and B. M. Popkin, “Patterns and Trends in Food Portion Sizes, 1977–1998,” Journal of the American Medical Association 289 (2003): 450–53.

  On Americans’ perceptions of their weight and attempts to lose weight, see V. W. Chang and N. A. Christakis, “Self-perception of Weight Appropriateness in the United States,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 24 (2003): 332–39; and J. Kruger et al., “Attempting to Lose Weight: Specific Practices Among U.S. Adults,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 26 (2004): 402–6. On how accurately people estimate calories, see S. Burton et al., “Attacking the Obesity Epidemic: The Potential Health Benefits of Providing Nutrition Information at Restaurants,” American Journal of Public Health 96 (2006): 1669–75; and J. R. Backstrand et al., “Fat Chance: a Survey of Dietitians’ Knowledge of Calories and Fat in Restaurant Meals,” available at portionteller.com/pdf/cspistudy97.pdf.

  For more on the health department’s trans fat work, see S. Y. Angell et al., “Cholesterol Control Beyond the Clinic: New York City’s Trans Fat Restriction,” Annals of Internal Medicine 151 (2009): 129–34.

  Initial reactions to the trans fat proposal are described in “New York City Plans Limits on Restaurants’ Use of Trans Fats,” New York Times, September 27, 2006; “Some Owners Uneasy About Proposal,” New York Times, September 27, 2006; “Don’t Let Them Eat Cake,” New York Post, September 28, 2006; and “Goodbye Fries? NYC May Ban Trans Fats,” Associated Press, September 26, 2006. The quotes from Applebee’s and from the National Restaurant Association (about the effect of a trans fat ban on traffic and congestion) come from their written comments to the Board of Health, which were summarized in a memorandum from the health department staff to Tom Frieden for the attention of the board, available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/cardio/cardio-transfat-comments-response.pdf. Dunkin’ Brands efforts to eliminate trans fats are described in “The Long, Secret Journey to a Healthier Donut,” Boston Globe, September 16, 2007. An article about the food industry’s opposition is “McDonald’s Readies for NYC Trans Fat Fight,” Crain’s New York Business, November 14, 2006.

  Chapter 6: “I just went on a field trip to Dunkin’ Donuts.”

  More detail on the calorie-labeling rule appears in T. A. Farley et al., “New York City’s Fight Over Calorie Labeling,” Health Affairs 28 (2009): 1098–109. The final rule appears in section 81.50 of the Health Code, http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/about/health-code.shtml.

  The study on the relationship between supermarket availability and obesity is K. Moreland et al., “Supermarkets, Other Food Stores, and Obesity,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 30 (2006): 333–39.

  The transcript of the committee on consumer affairs’ hearing on Green Carts on January 31, 2008, is posted on the City Council’s website at http://legistar.council.nyc.gov/Calendar.aspx. The initiative is the subject of the documentary The Apple Pushers, http://www.applepushers.com.

  The Marie series of antismoking ads are posted on the DCF website http://www.dcfadvertising.com.

  Chapter 7: “Now, for the first time ever, she could see for herself.”

  The article on the low quality of medical care in the United States is E. A. McGlynn et al., “The Quality of Health Care Delivered to Adults in the United States,” New England Journal of Medicine 348 (2003): 2635–45.

  The health department’s public health detailing work is summarized in K. Larson et al., “Public Health Detailing: A Strategy to Improve the Delivery of Clinical Preventive Services in New York City,” Public Health Reports 12 (2006): 228–34.

  The clinical decision support system for the Primary Care Information Project is described in S. Amirfar et al., “Developing Public Health Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) for the Outpatient Community in New York City: Our Experience,” BMC Public Health 11 (2011): 753.

  Farzad Mostashari described the health department’s program to get doctors using its electronic medical records in F. Mostashari, M. Tripathi, and M. Kendall, “A Tale of Two Large Community Electronic Health Record Extension Projects,” Health Affairs 28 (2009): 354–56.

  The Australian antismoking ad Separation is posted on the World Lung Foundation’s website http://www.worldlungfoundation.org.

  Chapter 8: “There’s no doubt our kids drink way too much soda.”

  The history of dietary guidelines on fat is summarized in K. D. Gifford, “Dietary Fats, Eating Guides, and Public Policy: History, Critique, and Recommendations,” American Journal of Medicine 113, no. 9, supp. 2 (2002): 89–106. The trends toward increasing carbohydrate intake are included in R. R. Briefel and C. L. Johnson, “Secular Trends in Dietary Intake in the United States,” Annual Review of Nutrition 24 (2004): 401–31. An article rethinking the focus on fat is D. S. Ludwig, “Dietary Glycemic Index and Obesity,” Journal of Nutrition 130, no. 2 (2000): 280S–283S. Gary Taubes’s article on the risks of fats and carbohydrates is “What If It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?,” New York Times Magazine, July 7, 2002. The study on teenagers that supports the hypothesis about the glycemic index is D. S. Ludwig et al., “High Glycemic Index Foods Overeating, and Obesity,” Pediatrics 103 (1999): e26.

  Robert Lustig’s articles on the toxicity of sugar include R. H. Lustig, “The Toxic Truth About Sugar,” Nature, February 2, 2012, and R. H. Lustig, “Fructose: Metabolic, Hedonic, and Societal Parallels with Ethanol,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 110 (2010): 1307–21.

  Studies on the satiety of liquid versus solid food are R. Mattes, “Fluid Calories and Energy Balance: The Good, the Bad, and the Uncertain,” Physiology and Behavior 89 (2006): 66–70; and D. P. DiMeglio and R. D. Mattes, “Liquid Versus Solid Carbohydrate: Effects on Food Intake and Body Weight,” International Journal of Obesity 24 (2000): 794–800.

  Studies on sugary drinks and obesity include M. B. Schulze et al., “Sugar-sweetened Beverages, Weight Gain, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Young and Middle-Aged Women,” Journal of the American Medical Association 292 (2004): 927–34; and V. S. Malik, M. B. Schulze, and F. B. Hu, “Intake of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 84 (2006): 274–88. Studies tracking the rise in sugary drink consumption include S. J. Nielsen et al., “Trends in Energy Intake in United States Between 1977 and 1996: Similar Shifts Seen Across Age Groups,” Obesity Research 10 (2002): 370–78; S. J. Nielsen et al., “Changes in Beverage Intake Between 1977 and 2001,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 27 (2004): 205–10; B. K. Kit et al., “Trends in Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Among Youth and Adults in the United States: 1999–2010,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 98 (2013): 180–88; and R. K. Johnson et al., “Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health,” Circulation 120 (2009): 1011–20.

  The potential effect of a tax on sugary drinks, as measured by the price elasticity, is discussed in T. Andreyeva et al., “The Impact of Food Prices on Consumption: A Systematic Review of Research on the Price Elasticity of Demand for Food,” American Journal of Public Health 100 (2010): 216–22.

  An
article mentioning Indra Nooyi’s trouble with investors over straying from the unhealthiest items is “Pepsi Chief Shuffles Management to Soothe Investors,” New York Times March 12, 2012.

  To evaluate the effect of calorie labeling on menus, the health department conducted surveys of purchases at fast-food restaurants in New York City. The first surveys were completed in 2007, before the calorie labels appeared. Analyses appear in M. T. Bassett et al., “Purchasing Behavior and Calorie Information at Fast-Food Chains in New York City, 2007,” American Journal of Public Health 98 (2008): 1457–59; T. Dumanovsky et al., “What People Buy from Fast-Food Restaurants: Caloric Content and Menu Item Selection, New York City, 2007,” Obesity 17 (2009): 1369–74; and C. Huang et al., “Calories from Beverages Purchased at 2 Major Coffee Chains in New York City, 2007,” Preventing Chronic Disease 6 (2009): A118.

  Some articles that appeared after the calorie labels went up are “Restaurants That Lack Calorie Counts Now Face Fines,” New York Times, July 19, 2008; “Running from Dunkin’,” New York Sun, June 24, 2008; “NYC Chain Restaurants Posting Calories on Menus,” Reuters.com, July 20, 2008; and “On the Table: The Calories Lurking in Restaurant Food,” Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2008. Dunkin’ Donuts’ lower-calorie sandwiches are described in “Dunkin’ Donuts to Offer Healthier Menu Items,” Associated Press, July 30, 2008.

  The poll on obesity policy was conducted by Lake, Snell, Perry & Associates in 2003 and the report is available at http://www.phsi.harvard.edu/health_reform/poll_results.pdf.

  The changes to school food in New York City during the Bloomberg years are summarized in S. E. Perlman et al., “A Menu for Health: Changes to New York City School Food, 2001–2011,” Journal of School Health 82 (2012): 484–91.

  Obesity in children in Head Start programs is discussed in C. L. Williams et al., “Body Size and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Preschool Population,” Preventive Cardiology 7 (2004): 116–21.

  City government nutrition standards and the process of developing them are described in A. Lederer et al., “Toward a Healthier City: Nutrition Standards for New York City Government,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 46 (2014): 423–28. The standards themselves are available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/living/agency-food-standards.shtml.

  School snack vending policies around the country in the early 2000s are summarized in the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s “School Foods Report Card 2007,” available at http://www.cspinet.org/2007schoolreport.pdf. The announcement of Clinton’s soda agreement is summarized in “Soda Distributors to End Most School Sales,” Washington Post, May 3, 2006.

  Initial reactions to Paterson’s soda tax proposal are described in “A Tax on Many Soft Drinks Sets Off a Spirited Debate,” New York Times, December 17, 2008, and the discussion continued in articles such as K. D. Brownell and T. R. Frieden, “Ounces of Prevention—The Public Policy Case for Taxes on Sugared Beverages,” New England Journal of Medicine 360 (2009): 1805–8; “Sodas a Tempting Target,” New York Times, May 20, 2009; “Tax Proposals Draw Critics in Talks on Financing Health Insurance,” New York Times, May 21, 2009; K. D. Brownell et al., “The Public Health and Economic Benefits of Taxing Sugar-Sweetened Beverages,” New England Journal of Medicine 361 (2009): 1599–605; and “Dr. Tom’s Toughest Case,” New York Post, September 12, 2009. Stephen Colbert’s rant on the topic on May 12, 2009, is at http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/vyychn/stephen-s-coke-party-protest.

  Chapter 9: “In the end, it’s just ketchup.”

  An article that ranks hypertension relative to other major health risks is G. Danaei et al., “The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors,” PLoS Medicine 6 (2009): e100058.

  Salt: The Forgotten Killer is available at http://www.cspinet.org/salt. A review of the risks of salt is F. J. He and G. A. MacGregor, “A Comprehensive Review on Salt and Health and Current Experience of Worldwide Salt Reduction Programs,” Journal of Human Hypertension 23 (2009): 363–84. The benefit of low-salt diets was shown in F. M. Sacks et al., “Effect on Blood Pressure of Reduced Sodium and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet,” New England Journal of Medicine 344 (2001): 3–10.

  Some key articles on the INTERSALT study are “INTERSALT: An International Study of Electrolyte Excretion and Blood Pressure. Results for 24-Hour Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion,” British Medical Journal 297 (1988): 319–30, and J. J. M. Carvalho et al., “Blood Pressure in Four Remote Populations in the INTERSALT Study,” Hypertension 14 (1989): 238–46.

  Estimates of salt consumption during the Paleolithic period appear in M. Konner and S. B. Eaton, “Paleolithic Nutrition: Twenty-Five Years Later,” Nutrition in Clinical Practice 25 (2010): 594–602.

  The health benefits of reducing sodium intake are estimated in K. Palar and R. Sturm, “Potential Societal Savings from Reduced Sodium Consumption in the U.S. Adult Population,” American Journal of Health Promotion 24 (2009): 49–57.

  Information on the sources of sodium in the American diet can be found in R. D. Mattes, “Relative Contributions of Dietary Sodium Sources,” Journal of the American College of Nutrition 10 (1991): 383–93; and in a Web appendix to P. A. Cotton et al., “Dietary Sources of Nutrients Among U.S. Adults, 1994–1996, ”Journal of the American Dietetic Association 104 (2004): 921–30.

  The change in salt preference from eating less salt is described in M. Bertino et al., “Long-term Reductions in Dietary Sodium Alters the Taste of Salt,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 36 (1982): 1134–44.

  The Finland success story on salt is described in H. Karppanen and E. Mervaala, “Sodium Intake and Hypertension,” Progress in Cardiovascular Disease 49 (2006): 59–75; and T. Laatikainen et al., “Sodium in the Finnish Diet: 20-Year Trends in Urinary Sodium Among the Adult Population,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 60 (2006): 965–70.

  Failed efforts on sodium in the United States appear in a report on the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health, available at http://www.nns.nih.gov/1969/full_report/White_House_Report2_S2.pdf; and A. H. Hayes, Jr., “FDA’s Dietary Sodium Initiative—In the War Against Hypertension, a New Weapon,” Public Health Reports 98 (1983): 207–10. Trends in sodium intake in the United States are available in R. R. Briefel and C. L. Johnson, “Secular Trends in Dietary Intake in the United States,” Annual Review of Nutrition 24 (2004): 401–31.

  The work of the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency to reduce salt in foods is described in a report available at http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/multimedia/pdfs/saltreductioninitiatives.pdf.

  The study on saltshakers is G. K. Beauchamp et al., “Failure to Compensate Decreased Dietary Sodium with Increased Table Salt Usage,” Journal of the American Medical Association 258 (1987): 3275–78.

  Early reports on the nH1N1 epidemic are “Fighting Deadly Flu Outbreak, Mexico Shuts Schools or Millions,” New York Times, April 25, 2009; and “Health Officials Investigate Illness at Queens Private School,” New York Times, April 25, 2009.

  Chapter 10: “All I could think of was, welcome to New York.”

  Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights maintains data and compiles reports on smoke-free laws, which are available at http://www.no-smoke.org. For more on the spread of smoke-free air rules in Europe, see “Europe’s ‘No Smoking’ Zones,” Independent, January 5, 2006; and “French Smoking Ban: The End of a Way of Life?,” New York Times, January 1, 2008.

  Chapter 11: “They can’t even be bothered to sue us?”

  The Federal Trade Commission issues annual reports on how tobacco companies spend their billions promoting smoking. They are available at http://www.ftc.gov/industry/tobacco.

  Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights maintains a list of municipalities with smoke-free parks at http://www.no-smoke.org. A study on the smoke generated by cigarettes outdoors is N. E. Klepeis et al., “Real-time Measurement of Outdoor Tobacco Smoke Particles,” Jo
urnal of the Air and Waste Management Association 57 (2007): 522–34. Other researchers showed that people exposed to tobacco smoke outdoors had elevated levels of cotinine: see J. C. Hall et al., “Assessment of Exposure to Secondhand Smoke at Outdoor Bars and Family Restaurants in Athens, Georgia, Using Salivary Cotinine,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 6 (2009): 698–704.

  Chapter 12: “We were outgunned.”

  Studies on the effect of menu calorie labeling are B. Elbel et al., “Calorie Labeling and Food Choices: A First Look at the Effect on Low-Income People in New York City,” Health Affairs 2009: w1110–21; T. Dumanovsky et al., “Consumer Awareness of Fast-Food Calorie Information in New York City After Implementation of a Menu Labeling Regulation,” American Journal of Public Health 100 (2010): 2520–25; T. Dumanovsky et al., “Changes in Energy Content of Lunchtime Purchases from Fast Food Restaurants After Introduction of Calorie Labeling: Cross-Sectional Customer Surveys,” British Medical Journal 343 (2011): d4464; and G. Bollinger et al., “Calorie Posting in Chain Restaurants,” NBER Working Paper No. 15648, available at http://www.nber.org.

  The health department’s Pouring on the Pounds ads (including Man Drinking Fat) are posted at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/living/sugarydrink-media-archive.shtml.

  An ad promoting the soda tax in 2010 is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucABebGFms0. Ads against it are at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXg0RTquFwc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtuvB20HXbs.

  Data on federal lobbying contributions by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association are available from the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, at http://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov. Articles on their contributions to state legislators include “Lobbyists Targeted Westchester Pols to Make Soda Tax Idea Go Flat,” Daily News, March 26, 2010; “Soda Tax Seems to Be Falling Flat,” Albany Times-Union, March 16, 2010; and “Drink Makers Lead $211M Lobby Gusher,” New York Post, March 5, 2011. A postmortem of the tax attempt is “Failure of State Soda Tax Plan Reflects Power of an Antitax Message,” New York Times, July 3, 2010.