Barclays Center is a long-awaited new entertainment and sports arena that just opened in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Jay Z has been performing all week to sold-out audiences. According to the New York Times, the arena’s bounty of savory and sweet dining selection is fit for foodies – not just concert-goers and sports fans.  But, thanks to the soda ban, don’t expect to wash it down with a 20-ounce bottle of soda.

The Village Voice pointed out with amusement and irony that you can buy a 1,200 calorie cheeseburger at the arena … but not a 20-ounce bottle of soda with 200 calories to wash it down.

Government picking and choosing “good” foods vs. “bad” foods is a dangerous path to go down.  No clear standard exists in state or federal government for defining foods as good or bad, healthy or not healthy. Which nutrients should be considered? If you listen to some, sugar is the food “villain” of the moment, but eggs have held that title, as has fat.

Consider the raisin. One ounce of raisins has 85 calories and 17 grams of sugar. By comparison, one ounce of a chocolate donut has 118 calories, but only 9 grams of sugar. Imagine the absurdity of the government making these decisions on the more than 300,000 food and beverages sold in grocery stores today. We’d be left with a food code the size of the tax code with as many loopholes and irregularities.

Not long ago, the Huffington Post highlighted eight everyday foods with more sugar than a Twinkie. So if the Twinkie was held out as the standard by which all other foods were judged – and why not, it makes about as much sense as banning 20-ounce bottles of soda at sports arenas – then tomato sauce, granola bars, salad dressing and muffins would be in the “bad” category for having more sugar than the spongy treat.

Keeping up with the tax code is hard enough. We say, spare us the food code!