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 ...
Oh geez. Of course the gargantuan difference is that my arteries don't get clogged if someone from a neighboring table is eating french fries while I eat my twigs and grass.
Bump!
Not that I'm in favor of trans fats, but something tells me this is the next prosecutorial scam after shaking down the tobacco industry. If something should be made illegal, the legislature can handle it. We don't need lahyers angling for their 35% cut.
Bet you don't know, that the freon the gov. placed taxes and restrictions on, in Florida a few years back, does not, actually cause global warming. Does help put money in somebody's pocket when they pass rules like that, though.
On what?
He's shrunk!
If they go after veal, its time to go to the mattresses...
YEAH, LET'S ALL GET ON A SPINACH DIET!!!!!
no trans-fat in spinach, right?
Its only ORGANICALLY grown fresh spinach... conventionally grown spinach with all the nice fertilizers, is okay..
Wow!
I've been out of the loop lately,
and didn't know about THAT!
Y'all need someone like Haley
Barbour running NYC.
He appreciates a good donut. ;o)
So when can we expect the government-mandated "physical jerks"?
Bloomberg...more like Gloomturd.
Rush was right.
It will end with all foods and beverages being derived from tofu. There will be no more Thanksgiving turkeys...only Thanksgiving tofurkeys. No more cheeseburgers...only tofuburgers. And BTW, criticizing veganism will be considered a hate crime.
And then the food nazis will demand all households be subject to random inspections of their fridges and cupboards. And eventually CPS will take your kids if you caught with any politically-incorrect foods.
Welcome to New America, where freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals five.
It all goes back to Klinton's police state blueprint called Healthy People 2010. All 50 states are under the tyrannical yoke of Healthy People 2010. Remember, Lt. Huxley in "Demolition Man" said "Anything unhealthy is bad for you, therefore illegal". We are officially living in a dystopian police state...and the only thing the bureaucraps in D.C. are concerned about is accelerating the formation of the North American Union.
There is no difference in the eyes of those who say, "I am from the government. . .I am here to help you."
No one wanted to buy the 'slippery slope' argument when people were complaining about government butting into private business and telling them they could not allow smoking. Maybe now, some of them will listen.
Nah, they won't care until it affects their life choices.
Maybe I should go to NYC and open my own politically-incorrect restaurant called BACCDAFUCCUP.
Before trans-fats, there were donuts.
Before trans-fats there were french fries.
All the things that were there before trans-fats, will still be there. Taking trans-fats out of a cracker, for instance, doesn't mean it will be a horrible food. Try a Triscuit and see for yourself.
I couldn't find any report issued this summer by the IOM related to Trans Fats. If you have a link to it, please provide it so that I may review this "long-awaited report". The latest report I could find on the IOM website concerning Trans Fats was from 2002. It was basically a collection of smaller studies (most were less than 100 subjects) and most of the studies only followed their subjects for a few weeks, unlike the Harvard Trans Fat Study of 2005 that followed 730 people for 20 years.
"...there is a positive linear trend between trans fatty acid intake and [both] total and LDL cholesterol concentration.”
The 2002 report has those words, but you left out an important part. The report states: "Similar to saturated fatty acids, there is a positive linear trend between trans fatty acid intake and LDL cholesterol concentrations (Judd et al., 1994; Lichtenstein et al., 1999; Zock and Katan, 1992)." As I have already mentioned, a well balanced diet is more important than whether or not it includes Trans Fats. A diet high in any type of fat shows a correlation to increased levels of LDL cholesterol.
"The evidence is quite clear on this..."
The evidence is far from clear. Even if the science isn't junk, the interpretations and propaganda put out by the anti-Trans-Fat crowd are junk; at the very least, that much is very clear.
Oh, and one other item, from the 2005 Dietary Reference Manual:"Trans fatty acids are completely catabolized to carbon dioxide and water."
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