This public service announcement put out by the New York City health department sure got my attention:

We Midwesterners tend to not want to get in people’s faces this way, but you have to admit, it makes a point.

Not that I have anything in particular against soda. You could substitute a bottle of sports drink, a huge tumbler of lemonade, or hitting a little closer to home for me, a trendy pale ale.

Point is, Americans now consume 200-300 more calories each day than we did 30 years ago. And most of them are empty calories. We are literally pouring on the pounds.

And this, ultimately, has collective health consequences. How do we encourage each other to get a handle on this without sounding like food police?