Bloomberg policy: Junk food for some OK

NEW YORK, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who pushes healthy diets for the public, offers plenty of junk food to his company's staff, employees say.

Bloomberg L.P.'s pantry provides free snacks – ranging from celery and bananas to Coke, Pepsi, orange Fanta, ginger ale and Mountain Dew.

"We have all the junk in the world up there," an employee told The New York Times Friday. "I mean, you can gain 15 pounds in a hurry."

On Thursday, the mayor asked federal permission for a two-year ban on the use of food stamps for sugared drinks, citing the "enormous correlation" between soft drinks and obesity and diabetes. Bloomberg asserted that taxpayers should not subsidize bad nutrition.

The mayor admitted that he lets soft drinks be served at Gracie Mansion, where he holds events but does not live.

Asked about the apparent contradiction, spokesman Stu Loeser said, "He isn't involved in the day-to-day operations of the company he started 29 years ago, and that includes picking out the food in the pantries."