What Will They Ban Next?
So according to this article, New York wants to prohibit menu items containing trans fats as an ingredient.
New York City wants restaurants to narrow their list of ingredients - and maybe some waistlines - by cutting out trans fats. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said the voluntary change could also help fight the city's biggest killer, heart disease.Something about this really bothers me. I understand the New York ban on smoking in restaurants - secondhand smoke kills innocent bystanders as well. But making margarine illegal? I think that's a bit ridiculous. Adults should be able to have the choice to order french pastries or fried chicken at a restaurant, even if doing it too often might affect their health. Next they're going to ban the serving of red meat. Or maybe make restaurant patrons sign a waiver that they promise not to go swimming for an hour after their meal.
To comply, chefs would have to dump many margarines and frying oils, and possibly reworking long-held recipes for baked goods.
posted by orthomom at 5:58 PM
11 Comments:
Or forbid kissing after ingesting garlic.
LOL. Or they would ban those driving from drinking alcohol. Wait...shouldn't that ban come BEFORE they ban margarine?
Quick someone make a Slifkin/Gedolim/banning joke! (DovBear is that you I hear running?)
Yeah, I figured a bunch of people would see the title over at JRants and rush over here, assuming there was another ban by the UO's.
"(Why carrots? Why not?)"
Good point, Mirty!
So they should require producers to label appropriately and let us choose. We are all intelligent people.
They're not "making margarine illegal" nor are they not banning it. They're merely requesting that restaurants voluntarily stop using ingredients that have trans-fatty acids in them to protect the collective public health.
Given the significant mountains of data indicating how dangerous consumption of such fats are (and the ever-increasing number of obese and overweight Americans), I think it's akin to urging people not to smoke and not to use illegal substances becaue they're so acutely harmful to our health.
Granted, we don't want the government banning it entirely or telling us every single thing that's bad for our us. As Krum said, we're all adults and we can make our own decisions. But if you had the choice, wouldn't you rather eat in a restaurant that doesn't include harmful ingredients in its food? And if we can encourage more restaurants not to use it and help wean people off of it, why shouldn't we?
Granted that adults have the options to make choices. But can't governments make laws in order to protect children? I don't know the statistics, but if it turns out that children are ingesting a large percentage of their trans-fatty acids in restaurants, rather than homes, should they not be protected? Remember, in many communities, child obesity is almost as much a problem as ETS (environmental tobacco smoke).
PS: Yikes, I forgot to davven `arvis! Fortunately, there's still a while until hhatzos. Lemmedavvennow.
Um thanks Marge for that odd announcement.
Btw, Maariv can be said bediavad until dawn.
-a.s.
A.S.--
I realize that. But a relevant word in your sentence is bediavad.
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