Posted on 12/20/2006 5:45:09 AM PST by Hadean
Massachusetts is considering following New York City's lead and banning restaurants from serving artery-clogging artificial trans fats - a move some lovers of greasy food are giving a thumbs-down.
State Rep. Peter Koutoujian, a Democrat from Waltham, co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Health, filed a bill yesterday to make Massachusetts the first state to impose the ban.
"It's basically killing people," Koutoujian said.
He said health officials have know about the "evils" of trans fat for years. He said two recent developments - greater access to non-trans-fat cooking oils and a move by major restaurant chains to get away from trans fat - now make a statewide ban possible.
"People are dying and suffering heart events all around us, and trans fat is something that is easily replaceable," he said. Trans fat is produced when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil through hydrogenation.
This month, New York became the first U.S. city to ban trans fats. Under Koutoujian's bill, no foods with artificial trans fat could be used to prepare menu items in Massachusetts restaurants, except for food served directly to customers in the manufacturer's original sealed package.
Some local restaurant owners say the bill is a sign of big government run amok. They say they want the option to use trans fat if they want - and say most diners know all too well the risk of a diet that uses high levels of the fat.
"You don't need a law to tell you what to eat," said James Grigas, owner of the popular Fill-A-Buster restaurant on Beacon Hill in the shadow of the state house.
Grigas uses vegetable oil to cook the french fries at his restaurant but says people have to take personal responsibility for their diet.
"You know not to eat hamburgers and cheeseburgers every day. That's just common sense," he said. "What are they going to do next? Tell me what to wear?"
Peter Christie, head of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, said many restaurants have already voluntarily moved away from the use of trans fats, and he said he welcomed the public debate.
The conscience of the ultra liberals of Massachusetts is pricking for all the abominations they allowed the last few years and had to soothe their conscious with some kind of "moral issue" and looks like they found something to get their teeth into....
We're going to ban transfats, but the legislature here recently overrode Romney's veto so that they can give free needles to junkies.
Actually, I don't have much of a problem with this, so long as it is ok for the food producers to go back to the ingredients trans-fats replaced. Cooking with butter and lard made food taste better anyway.
So is homosexual activity, but I doubt they're going to ban that...
You are sooo on the money, Cripplecreek.
Robert Burns saw it too, in his poem about a pathetic clerk addressed to a sausage:
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,/ As feckless as a wither'd rash,/ His spindle shank a guid whip lash,/ His nieve a nit:/ Thro bloody flood or field to dash,/ O how unfit!
("Nieve a nit" = "Fist a gnat.")
The ultimate PC male and the wave of the liberal future.
We all better remember the Heinous Harridan's words, "We are going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." She will do for the entire country what Massachusetts and other nanny states want to do. If this witch becomes President, "1984" is going to look like a picnic.
This should destroy the Dunkin Donuts franchise. But I wouldn't worry. They're not a big employer.
Good one! That is priceless.
This should destroy the Dunkin Donuts franchise. But I wouldn't worry. They're not a big employer of illegal aliens.
I thought they were elected officals so why are they trying to be everones mommy?
Next step will be to tell you how many childern you are allowed to have, to be follow thereafter to tell you that if you have two boys then the next one must be a girl and if it's another boy you will be fined or the baby will be removed from your family.
These nutjobs are trying to starve us to death.
So how do they expect people to find a cop?
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