Posted on 09/26/2006 10:07:16 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
NEW YORK (AP) -- Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.
The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city's 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.
Artificial trans fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to doughnuts.
Doctors agree that trans fats are unhealthy in nearly any amount, but a spokesman for the restaurant industry said he was stunned the city would seek to ban a legal ingredient found in millions of American kitchens.
"Labeling is one thing, but when they totally ban a product, it goes well beyond what we think is prudent and acceptable," said Chuck Hunt, executive vice president of the city's chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association.
He said the proposal could create havoc: Cooks would be forced to discard old recipes and scrutinize every ingredient in their pantry. A restaurant could face a fine if an inspector finds the wrong type of vegetable shortening on its shelves.
The proposal also would create a huge problem for national chains. Among the fast foods that would need to get an overhaul or face a ban: McDonald's french fries, Kentucky Fried Chicken and several varieties of Dunkin' Donuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The food nazis in New Jersey tried to ban eggs in restaurants a few years ago unless they were fully cooked. It was so made fun of and ridiculed they backed off.
Artificial TransFat is completely unneccessary, and frankly foods taste WAY better without them...
You haven't tasted french fries until you tasted them cooked in 100% lard.
Hydrogenated veggie oil was cheap knock off, never tasted the same as the original and frankly health wise its horrible for you.
I think it will be interesting to see what happens when folks actually have good food to eat again
Good idea, hope they do it.
Think of it this way: if we just let the nanny staters save us from all these evil toxic death twinkies it won't matter that St. Hillary's state-run hospitals have a three year waiting list for a heart bypass (but no waiting for the post-op infection that will carry you off). They're just thinking ahead that's all.
Will Mayor Bloomboy ban IMPORTS of trans-fats from states that have weak lard laws?
I'd like to see more of this. I want the nanny staters to overreach so far that nobody takes them serious anymore. I'm talking about the unwashed masses who need to be hit in the head with a shovel several times before a lesson sticks.
Oh twinkies aren't going away.. they are just going to be made with lard or butter instead of artificially hyrdrogenated veggie oils... Going to taste so much better.. Yummie.
Actually, since the government research determined there is ZERO healthy level for trans fat, and the FDA required labels to show trans fat content, most stuff in your grocery store have already or are well on their way to removing transfat from their products.
Go check out the nutrition labels for yourself. Most products have already removed trans fat from their products, because it frankly isn't neccessary, it was cheap (and as we have learned very unhealthy) replacement for the fats your parents and grandparents and great grandparents etc etc etc lived on.
I think you will honestly see hydrogenated oils eventually banned across the board, they are unneccessary and as we have unfortunately learned ghastly unhealthy.
Saturated fat is a whole other issue.. but Trans Fat, particularly the artificially created kind, is a horrible blight on health.. and frankly had the FDA known the long term effects of it back when it was introduced it likely would have never approved it for human consumption.
Lard is not banned under this law.. and lard is not artificially hydrogenated oil.
Maybe they'll keep trans fats but just "tax the hell out of them"...
BEWARE, the GREASE POLICE are on point. Wonder if they'll wear those SWAT looking uniforms, and drive around in unmarked Crown Vics and black vans. As you mention,, just a bunch of libs putting more "boots on the ground".
(Pssst, I have some primo CRISCO, heavily buttered, that'll get you higher than Betty Crocker and gain you entree into the NYC underground Mazola Raves)
Looks like this is another shakedown opportunity "for the greater good" Meanwhile the fines that will occur will finance any manner of "progressive" schemes. Follow the money.
The reason trans-fats are so called, has to do with the shape of the molecule, which is fairly straight in a "trans" molecule as opposed to a "cis" molecule, which has bends in it. The fat molecules in most natural foods tends towards the "cis" shape.
A little known fact is that many of the studies, while well done, often reach ambiguous conclusions. For example, one well-known study (and oft-cited by the anti-trans-fat crowd) say this about itself: "Our study has several limitations. First, it is cross-sectional; therefore, we cannot infer causality from our results." This from a study that took over 20 years to complete and followed 730 people!!! Of course, that remark is buried pretty far down in the report and it doesn't make good headlines. Here is a link to it: Harvard Trans Fat Study
What is interesting is that even Ben Franklin noticed back in his day that more people in America died from over-eating then from lack of food. It seems a day doesn't go by that I don't hear or read or see some advertisement about the "obesity epidemic" in America! The reality is people eat to much in this country! Wouldn't it be better to encourage people to consume a balanced diet and not over-eat than to start passing laws banning this or that substance based on hysterical thinking and ambiguous studies?
Again,
The law only applys to ARTIFICIAL trans fats.. I've said this several times... your Lard is safe, and frankly tastes better and is healthier for you.
Hydrogenated vegetable oil (artificial trans fat) became all the rage because it was a cheap replacement for lard... and really became across the board implimented when the true food police went on their jihad against saturated fats... And wanted everything in vegetable oil.
The reason McD's fries don't taste like you remember as a kid was because the health nazis decided that lard (which the way they did fry them) was too unhealthy... So they switched to hydrogenated oils... which turns out are FAR MORE UNHEALTHY and frankly don't taste nearly as good.
The study on Trans Fat was quite conclusive... when no safe level can be found.. that's not an inconclusive result. You sound like an apologist for tobacco after the report came about smoking in the 50s.
The reality is, had the FDA known at the time it approved hydrogenated oils what it knows now, the product would never have been on the shelves. But they didn't know, so it did.... now years later we find out otherwise... so policies will change.
I've said it before, I'll say it again.. its going to be interesting when folks actually get to taste real food again.... Things made with hydrogenates don't taste nearly as good as things made with the natural stuff.. Butter beats margerine... Lard beats Crisco....
Ok, what study would that be? Like the Global Warming scam, there are many scientists who do not agree that all Trans Fats, even "artificial ones" are bad for humans. There have been many studies done & most of the studies have actually been inconclusive or poorly done. The study I linked in the previous post followed over 700 individuals for over 20 years, and the results were still inconclusive. One of the interesting points was that the individuals who ate the most trans fat products were also the most likely to: 1) Not exercise regularly, 2) Smoke, 3) Have higher BMI (Body Mass Index), 4) Drink alcohol. Maybe their poor health had more to do with lifestyle choices rather than the consumption of trans fats.
"Hydrogenated vegetable oil (artificial trans fat) became all the rage because it was a cheap replacement for lard.
Actually, trans-fat products became popular early in the 20th century when refrigeration was not as common. The hydrogenation keeps the fats from reacting with air, and so they stay fresh longer. Have you ever smelled rancid butter?
"You sound like an apologist for tobacco after the report came about smoking in the 50s."
Maybe it sounds that way, but I don't like all the junk science that passes for "facts everyone knows" nowadays. The organizations that are pushing the anti-trans-fat movement seem to like to attack big corporations and involve government in their quest for control over my life. I don't like that. I also question these organizations true purposes and motivations. If you or any one else doesn't want to eat tran-fats, I'm ok with that. But I don't want my government intruding on my life, especially when it is based on bogus science.
As a side note, both my parents lived to a ripe old age and both of them were regular consumers of trans-fats. However, both of them were fairly active individuals most of their lives, ate a well-balanced diet (lots of veggies that I didn't like as a kid!), didn't smoke or drink, and kept their body weight at a healthy level. However they did love their trans-fat margarine and other products, like Oreos. When I was younger and in my self-righteous health-nut phase, I used to try and warn them of the dangers of trans-fats in their diet. They would both laugh; my father would then say something like, "We're all going to die someday", and then tell me to, "have a another cookie - they're good for you!"
The FDA also waited for the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences to complete its study so that it could set a daily value and upper limit for trans fat.
The Institute released its long-awaited report this summer. It recommended that we keep our trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible, because “there is a positive linear trend between trans fatty acid intake and [both] total and LDL cholesterol concentration.” Consumption of trans fatty acid, therefore, increases the risk of coronary heart disease, the institute's report says.
The evidence is quite clear on this... its not junk science and its not some grand conspiracy. When hydrogenated oils were approved for human consumption they didn't know these issues.. now they do, and as such policies will change.
Now, arguing about whether a city council should be the vehicle or even has the authority to ban something like that is an interesting argument, but there is no doubt that
hydrogenated oils are unneccessary and dangerous.
The study you linked to is NOT the study the FDA based its recommendations off of.
Geez, this would destroy one of the major draws of NYC -- the food.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.