Washington – They’re Coming For Our Trans Fat _Does That Mean Salt and Soda Are Up Next?

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    Washington – They are among our most personal daily decisions: what to eat or drink. Maybe what to inhale.

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    Now that the government’s banning trans fat, does that mean it’s revving up to take away our choice to consume all sorts of other unhealthy stuff?

    What about salt? Soda? Cigarettes?

    Nah.

    In the tug-of-war between public health and personal freedom, the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to ban trans fats barely rates a ripple.

    Hardly anyone defends the icky-sounding artificial ingredient anymore, two decades after health activists began warning Americans that it was clogging their arteries and causing heart attacks.

    New York, Philadelphia, a few other localities and the state of California already have banned trans fat from restaurant food.

    McDonald’s, Taco Bell and KFC dropped it from their french fries, nachos and chicken years ago.

    The companies that fill grocery shelves say they already have reduced their use of trans fat by nearly three-fourths since 2005.

    Growers are promoting new soybean oils that they say will eliminate, within a few years, the need for partial hydrogenation, the process that creates trans fats still used to enhance the texture of some pie crusts, cookies and margarine.

    Mostly, Americans’ palates have moved on, and so have their arguments over what’s sensible health policy and what amounts to a “nanny state” run amok.

    When they aren’t feuding over President Barack Obama’s health care law, state politicians are busy weighing the wisdom of legalizing marijuana. Already 20 states and the District of Columbia have authorized it for medicinal use. Voters in Colorado and Washington state approved smoking pot just for fun.

    The FDA is taking heat for delays in coming out with new rules on regular-old tobacco cigarettes under a law passed in 2009. There are the new e-cigarettes to worry about, too. More than 20 states have banned stores from selling electronic cigarettes to minors, but the federal government has yet to take them on.

    New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attempt to stop restaurants from selling sodas larger than 16 ounces, and the federal government’s efforts to impose healthier lunches on school kids are causing more of an uproar than the trans fat ban.

    Still, Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health, says a national trans fat ban is “a big deal.” After all, the FDA estimates it will prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year.

    Levi doesn’t see it as evidence that federal regulators are suddenly on a roll, however.

    “There are other areas where regulation is sort of stuck — everything from nutrition labeling to food safety to the tobacco regulations that have not seen the light of day,” Levi said.

    Talk of new government regulation typically stirs up libertarians and conservatives. Yet the trans fat ban hasn’t provoked much beefing.

    Radio host Rush Limbaugh groused that bureaucrats shouldn’t regulate what people eat because it’s “none of their business” and research on nutrition keeps changing. After all, sticks of margarine made with trans fats used to be recommended as a healthier alternative to butter.

    Heritage Foundation research fellow Daren Bakst, who specializes in agriculture issues, blogged that the FDA is “ignoring the most important issue: the freedom of Americans.”

    A few fans of ready-to-spread cake frostings and microwave popcorn that still contain trans fat griped via Twitter.

    They don’t have to worry immediately.

    The FDA must consider comments from the food industry and the public before it comes up with a timeline for phasing out trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils. It could take years to get them off the market.

    Michael Jacobson, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, has been warning about the dangers since the early 1990s. Advocacy by the center helped persuade the government to add trans fat to nutrition labels beginning in 2006.

    That created consumer pressure on food companies to find tasty ways to replace partially hydrogenated oil with less harmful fats. The companies’ success helped clear the way for the government to consider a trans fat ban, he said.

    “It’s a little bit of an exception, in that it’s so harmful and it was so widely used,” Jacobson said, “and there are substitutes so that people can’t tell the difference when it’s removed.”

    Next on Jacobson’s wish list is something that would be much harder for industry and the FDA to accomplish: reducing the salt in processed foods.

    “There are estimates that it’s causing around 100,000 deaths prematurely every year in this country,” he said. “That is just huge.”


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    30 Comments
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    misslydia128
    misslydia128
    10 years ago

    Long overdue

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    10 years ago

    You bet they are. Its the nanny state socialists on the loose and foolish people like the first person to comment on this story are part of the problem. She obviously can’t control herself so she needs nannies like bloomingiotberg to police her intake.

    Well Judith,

    Tothepoint123
    Tothepoint123
    10 years ago

    Its definitely only the begining

    silenthocker
    silenthocker
    10 years ago

    Although I’m not a fan of state nannyism, trans-fat can be substituted with safer alternatives with zero taste difference. There is no legitimate reason to object to this measure. Many companies such as McDonald and Dunkin have already taken them out of their products.

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    10 years ago

    Banning trans-fats merely leads to sat fat been substituted in its place. Hostess switched from margarine to beef fat. Do you think that’s heart healthy? They’ll ban whatever they can get away with, as long as it looks good politically and it’s an easy target. They can ban trans fats because they’re artificial, but they can’t ban sat fat because it ubiquitous. They can ban large sodas but not small ones. And so on.

    sheepheadsbayyid
    sheepheadsbayyid
    10 years ago

    to some lets leave it to the companies I am sure they will only think of the health of the consumers. Yes why not let the companies do as they please. sorry but that is exactly why we have a FDA. I am sure you guys would love to move a country that does not regulate such stuff. Please pick a country that does not do this and explain why their system is better?

    chachom
    chachom
    10 years ago

    When will someone realize that if we allow unhealthy things like smoking and trans-fats to remain, the life expectancy will go down and social security might become solvent.

    Smokey
    Smokey
    10 years ago

    I can’t wait until trans fats are completely eliminated in the American diet. Maybe, one day, the 3 top finishers in the Men’s NYC Marathon will be all Americans, instead of from Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa, which is how they wound up last week.
    .

    10 years ago

    This is about our freedom! When you start allowing a governmental body to ban things that may not kill us (only may cause an increased chance of cardiac issues, is not destined to hurt us. And it matters how much you consume over how long a period) you allow them to control more and more of your life. Where will it end? Salt? Sugar? Caffeine?
    These are not poisons, and the FDA is for poisonous items. These are things that in too high a quantity are bad for you. And so are a lot of things. Too much (or too little) water, sleep, carbohydrates, sugars, salt… All can harm you. It’s about self control and we should practice it. If I eat healthily but want to have something unhealthy once in a while, I should be allowed to.
    Where will they end? Where will they decide “enough”?

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    10 years ago

    You bet they are. Its the nanny state socialists on the loose and foolish people like the first person to comment on this story are part of the problem. She obviously can’t control herself so she needs nannies like bloomingiotberg to police her intake.

    Well Judith,

    Geulah
    Geulah
    10 years ago

    “Rabbi Chanina the deputy [High] Priest said: Pray for the welfare of the government (lit., monarchy), for if not for its fear, a person would swallow his fellow live.” – Hope you all are enjoying the vitriol, a little salt with that or maybe some GMO mayo (soy beans are GMO). Seriously, death is more cost effective than keeping narish kop mentschen alive and on drugs or in dialysis. Cemeteries have lower monthly maintenance costs than adult homes, nursing homes or hospices. Just saying.

    Rut24
    Rut24
    10 years ago

    I wish that food industries were more regulated. There is a lot that goes in our food that isn’t good for us – even the so called healthy food.

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    10 years ago

    It’s really sad to see how many people are writing in thinking they know what they’re talking about when they don’t know their you know what from their elbow!