Posted on 12/20/2006 5:15:05 AM PST by Molly Pitcher
New York City has ordered restaurants to stop selling food made with trans fat. "It is a dangerous and unnecessary ingredient," says the health commissioner. Gee, I'm all for good health, but shouldn't it be a matter of individual choice?
A New York Times headline about the ban reads: "A Model for Other Cities."
"A model for what, exactly?" asks George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux (LINK: www.cafehayek.com). "Petty tyranny? Or perhaps for similarly inspired bans on other voluntary activities with health risks? Clerking in convenience stores? Walking in the rain?"
Trans fats give foods like French fries that texture I like. They are probably bad for me, but Radley Balko of Reason points out that "despite all of the dire warnings about our increased intake of trans-fats over the last 20 years, heart disease in America has been in swift decline ... So, if they're killing us, they're not doing a very good job."
But that's not the point. In a free society the issue is: Who decides what I eat, the government or me? It's not as though information about trans fats is hard to come by. Scaremongers like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) are all too happy to tell you about the dangers, and they have no trouble getting their declarations of doom on television and into newspapers.
Unfortunately, CSPI is not content to tell you avoid trans fats. It sues restaurants like McDonald's and KFC for using them, and urges governments to ban them.
But why do the health police get to take away my choices? Adults should be expected to take responsibility for their own health.
Often the health police say they must "protect the children." But children are the responsibility of their parents. When the state assumes the role of parent, it makes children of all of us.
The food prohibitionists don't understand that there are ways to influence people's behavior without resorting to coercion -- remember, coercion is the essence of government. The public fuss about harm from trans fats has already induced many food makers to remove them. It's suddenly become a competitive advantage to boast that your products are trans-fat-free. Such voluntary action is the best way to move toward healthier food.
Why isn't that good enough for the prohibitionists? Why must they enlist the iron hand of government?
I think they dislike freedom of choice. They know the right way, so it's only right that they force everyone to follow them. That's the philosophy of prohibitionists.
The Center for Consumer Freedom is running ads saying: "Now that New York has banned cooking oils with trans fat (the same substance as margarine) ... it opens the door to banning so much more! Using the same logic, let's get rid of New York style pizza (seriously, do you need all that cheese?), beef hot dogs (tofu dogs almost taste the same), corned beef (turkey breast is much leaner). ... "
Yes, I know the center's sponsors include restaurants and food companies, but still, it has a good point.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who died a few weeks ago, would have agreed. He was the author of "Free to Choose" and "free to choose" sums up Friedman's philosophy. He would have cringed at the banning of trans fats, just as he objected to the earlier banning of products like the sugar substitute called cyclamates.
Over 25 years ago, Friedman wrote, "If we continue on this path, there is no doubt where it will end. If the government has the responsibility of protecting us from dangerous substances, the logic surely calls for prohibiting alcohol and tobacco. . . . Insofar as the government has information not generally available about the merits or demerits of the items we ingest or the activities we engage in, let it give us the information. But let it leave us free to choose what chances we want to take with our own lives."
"We should ban chocolate. It is a drug after all..."
Things at my house would definitely get ugly! (See tagline.)
You forgot SALT. In the book, "The Death of Common Sense," OSHA actually fined a company for have a salt shaker in the employee lunch room that was NOT LABELED!!!
The food industry has turned us into a bunch of fat asses. Ooorah to NYC.
This article has it all. A common sense argument, railing against the fascists at CSPI and a quote from Milton Friedman! Heaven! :)
Thats a real conservative view-"Government please save me from that mean old food industry and myself."
The banned propellant was none other than the preeminent ozone depleter, R-12; it is non poisonous after all and we surely can't have that.
all of the smoking nazis that are so delighted to brand smokers as pariahs will be whistling a different tune when its their turn in the barrel.
Be well, John Spartan.
Edgar Friendly: You see, according to Cocteau's plan I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think; I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder - "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I WANT high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and BUCKETS of cheese, okay? I want to smoke Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green jello all over my body reading playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiener".
Alas, many of them are the same people.
Foldin' money?........First, the coins, then the paper..........
Try the Vice Fund. Good returns. No joke. The last things people will give up are cigs, alcohol and lottery tickets. As an added bonus, it invests in Military Defense, too. A little something for everyone, LOL!
http://www.vicefund.com
pssst!......Hey, buddy!.........Wanna buy some Hot Trans-Fats?....I can give you a good price!.............shhhh! Not so loud!..........
trans fats, are a dangerous type of food put in our diets today not by choice. It is a manufactured fat, that is cheaper than butter, and other natural oils, that holds a certain consistency at room temperature.
When it gets into the body, the body does not know what to do with it. So it floats around in the blood stream until it ends up adhering to bloodstream walls, i.e. partially being responsible for arterosclerosis.
However in a free society, we should choose if we want those tasty snacks, other food items or not.
Have a nice day.
When Crisco is outlawed, only outlaws (like us) will have Crisco, LOL!
Tell me about it!!!!
I still have more baking to do..........
I like Stossel, but he is dead wrong. Transfats are poison. The health benefits from their elimination will be looked upon 20 years from now as a great step forward for the well-being of Americans.
Maybe so. But, is this what the government of the City of New York should be working on?
Do what our forefathers did 399 years ago. Move
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