Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo. (PEP) and their rivals in the carbonated beverage industry may have lost the battle against New York's efforts to fight obesity by restricting soda sizes. But they may still win the war.

The decision by the city's health board to enact Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to limit soda serving sizes will almost certainly be litigated, which will delay its enactment for months, if not years. Such a regulation will be an enormous burden on businesses and will be extremely costly and difficult to enforce. What's to stop someone from buying two 16-ounce sodas instead of one 32 ouncer? Moreover, it will do little to make fat New Yorkers thin since a vast majority of Big Apple residents think it's a bad idea.

Shares of the beverage companies barely budged on the news, indicating that Wall Street may think this issue will blow over. That is a mistake. In these tight fiscal times, soda companies are too tempting a target because they are well-heeled and their product has almost no nutritionally redeeming qualities.

"I hope that New York's action emboldens other health departments and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to limit serving sizes and use other measures to reduce consumption," said Michael Jacobson, head of the Center for Science and the Public Interest, a fierce critic of the soda industry, in a statement.

Blaming soda in the war on obesity takes a very simple answer to a complex problem. People become overweight and stay that way for a variety of social, cultural, and in some cases medical reasons. Singling out one cause, such as drinking soda, is bad policy and even worse science.  

For one thing, per-capita consumption of carbonated beverages has been on the decline for years. It also gives other beverage makers a pass. Take the Starbucks (SBUX) Caramel Macchiato, which in its grande size packs a whopping 240 calories -- 60 from fat -- more than double the calories of a can of regular soda. While milk and orange juice have some nutritional value, unlike soda, the argument that can be made that they bear some responsibility for America's expanding waist lines. Let's not forget diet soda. There is considerable evidence that it's not great for you either. There is even evidence linking diet soda consumption with obesity, a condition with which I am well acquainted. 

It's nobody's fault but mine that I am overweight. Efforts such as Bloomberg's smack of the nanny state at its worst. Since when does government to decide what I eat and when I eat it? Adults need to take responsibility for what goes in our mouths.
 
--Jonathan Berr is long Coca-Cola.  Follow him on Twitter @jdberr

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