That soda you’re about to refill — do you really think you need to do that?

Too many companies push too much cheap food at us, regardless of the health concerns. Getting a good deal in the here and now appears to be far more important than staying fit and well over the long term.

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Even so, how much we eat or drink and when we do so is a personal choice we value being able to make here in the U.S.

In France, meanwhile, things are different. Free refills, as of last Friday, are banned from all self-service soda fountains throughout the nation in an effort to battle the obesity epidemic. The nation has some of the lowest obesity and overweight rates among developed countries, yet its numbers are increasing.

A governmental decree now prohibits restaurants, hotels and catering facilities from allowing customers to fill up on sweetened soft drinks as many times as they want.

“People are mindlessly eating huge portions of high-calorie and sugar-laden foods without thinking,” said one dietician.

“I’m not sure that free refills are a problem as much as the fact that people are mindlessly eating huge portions of high-calorie and sugar-laden foods without thinking about how it may affect their health,” said Natalie Rizzo, a New York registered dietician.

“Obviously drinking empty calories like soda is a big problem. Free refills or super-sized sodas are so much a part of our culture that it’s too easy for people to have too many calories before they even start eating. I think we are so out of touch with our foods and how many calories we actually need in a day that many people don’t even think about how these simple choices — like free refills or super-sized items — can affect them in the long run,” the founder of Nutrition a la Natalie told LifeZette.

Rizzo said doing away with free refills is a very small start to fighting obesity. It won’t accomplish much until people start to realize how detrimental soda is to their health — which is a few hundred calories and tons of sugar in just one glass.

Related: Skinny Fat is Worse Than Obesity

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“Obviously everyone has free choice, but it’s of the utmost importance that we start to think about our food choices and how they affect our health. Too often, people are concerned with their waistline and how they look in the mirror. But they don’t think about how too much sugar or excessive calories or obesity in general are linked to developing fatal diseases, like cancer, heart disease and diabetes,” Rizzo added.