Interview with Mayor Michael Bloomberg
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, HOST: Hello from the West Coast. Well, the race is here. I'm in California to race the Nautica Malibu triathlon, along with seven CNN viewers. They have been training all year long, right along with me. I will tell you that the sport of triathlon is growing, and growing fast. In fact, the number of people raising triathlons has increased 10-fold in the last decade. One of the all-time greats is going to be along to share tips about keeping your head in the game. I'm also going to explain something you're going to love. How anyone can get more fit, lose more weight, while in fact working out less. Before we get to all of that, there's a big story we have been following along for sometime out of New York. You may have heard about this. Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched this crusade essentially here to ban large sugary drinks, including sodas in city restaurants and delis. Now, on Thursday, he got what he wanted, a ban or a lid so to speak on the sale of all sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. I spoke exclusively with Mayor Bloomberg earlier from New York.</s>GUPTA: All right, Mr. Mayor, thanks so much for joining us. I wondered -- a lot of people are talking about what is happening in New York City obviously. I wonder if you could sort of take me back to the beginning for you. When did this become something you were thinking about seriously?</s>MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: Well, over the last few years, obesity has become a bigger and bigger problem, not just in the United States, but around the world. I think this is the first year in the history of the world where more people will die from the effects of too much food than from starvation. And it is fascinating, it is also, we think, the first disease in the history of the world that has gone from being a rich person's disease to a poor person's disease.</s>GUPTA: It's pretty shocking as you may know, Mr. Mayor, we have been reporting on this issue for sometime. Was there a personal story for you? I mean, did you have issues either with the chronic effects of obesity in your own family, yourself?</s>BLOOMBERG: No, but I can tell you, and I think I speak for almost everybody, if it's in front of me. I eat it. I love cheese-its. If you put a bowl, two pound box of cheese that's in front of me, I'd probably eat them all. That's not very good for you. But if you eat anything in moderation, there's no harm -- or almost anything. And so, if you put a small bowl of cheese that's in front of me, that's fine. We all do the same thing. All we're trying to do with the full sugary drinks is to have a smaller portion in front of you. If you want to take another portion, you can, nobody is banning you from doing that. You can buy it, as a matter of fact, you can buy two 16-ounce cups or four 16-ounce cups any time you want and take them all back to your seat or your table.</s>GUPTA: When you were sitting down with your team and thinking about the future, at the beginning again, of all of this, what was the biggest obstacle to getting this done, that you envisioned?</s>BLOOMBERG: Well, I actually think it is relatively simple. I think when people think back on what happened with smoking -- smoking was very controversial to ban it in public places. But when -- if you -- go around now, and say well who was against the smoking ban back then? You can't find anybody. Everybody remembers that they were for it. The big difference between smoking and obesity is that if you smoke and I'm in the same room, I get hurt. If you and I are in the same room and you're obese, I don't get hurt, short term. But I do eventually have to pay your medical bills because that's actually what happens.</s>GUPTA: So you make the argument that this is a public health issue, in addition to being a personal health issue? You know, it strikes me, Mayor, listening to you talk. You are obviously a man who has great wealth and resources. And you could have chosen to try to address these issues in many different ways. But as a mayor, what you're doing, I can sense the satisfaction in your voice as your getting things done.</s>BLOOMBERG: Well, and somebody said to me, what legacy would you like to have, three years improvement, a life expectancy, the 8.4 million and maybe for a lot of other people around the world, because certainly a smoking ban got copied in all of Western Europe, they're smoke-free. Big chunks of Latin America, countries like Brazil, one of the biggest countries in the world, smoke-free, even in China, where the governments own the tobacco companies, the 150 million people moving to the middle class are focusing on this. So a lot of lives will be saved. And maybe that's a pretty good legacy to have.</s>GUPTA: Not a bad one at all. Mr. Mayor, thanks so much. I hope you join us again, I really do want to keep on top of the story. Thank you, sir.</s>BLOOMBERG: Thank you for having us.</s>GUPTA: And I should note the ban doesn't in fact take place until March. And what we[re going to wait and see is in fact this move in makes New York City any healthier. Meantime, here in Malibu, our Lucky 7, they have already made the commitment to get fit. How about you? Up next, we're going to get advice from arguably possibly one of the greatest endurance athletes of all time. There she is. Plus, my out of this world challenger, a NASA astronaut, she decided to race me from 250 miles high up in the sky. We'll explain.