Chewing the Trans-Fat

I wouldn't exactly consider myself to be a health nut. I work out 3 times a week when I give myself the time to, I'm better now at eating balanced meals than I used to be when I was younger. That's mostly because I can afford more than Ramen noodles these days. My other issue is that unlike most Americans, I'm trying to PUT ON weight, not lose it. I'm blessed/cursed with a hummingbird-like metabolism. I know most other people are not, so what I have to say here may ring hollow but I'll give it a shot anyway.

You may have recently heard of New York City's attempt to ban so-called "trans-fats". I'm not quite sure what makes them "trans-fats"; maybe they are she-fats that used to be he-fats, I dunno. They are what are called "partially hydrogenated oils." Like I said, I'm no health nut and I'm certainly not a nutritionist, but I know enough to know that trans-fats are bad. Like "consume a lot of them and you'll be looking at future heart problems" bad. And this stuff is apparently in a lot of food that a lot of Americans consume, thus contributing to America's obesity problem.

Well, when there is a problem in this country that leads to harm for its people, we pretty much know what comes next: the lawyers. I'm not even going to get into the lawsuits against places like McDonald's where fat people have sued the chains for making them that way; those suits are just foolish. These were actually sensible... which are rare among lawsuits of this type. First Kraft was sued for having trans-fats in Oreos and other junk food products, and more recently KFC (which already has PETA after them) was sued to get the trans-fats out of their chicken. Both companies relented because it does make sense to not make a product that will eventually kill you.

However for some, this isn't good enough... hence the need to now pass laws banning trans-fats. A group called "Ban Trans Fats" is leading the way to getting these passed. So all restaurants in New York City must remove trans-fats from everything they make. The group's rationale, as described on their website, says, "The government is already in restaurant kitchens, ensuring that our food is safe. We would be in big trouble if the government stayed out of restaurant kitchens." Hey, nobody's challenging the fact that restaurants have to serve food that isn't poisonous or anything like that. Fact is, when I go to a restaurant, I'm pretty sure that what I order is gonna be not 100% healthy on some level, unless I intentionally order something 100% healthy. The group goes on to cite that New York City tried educating people about trans-fats but the message didn't take, so apparently they now have to act in our best interest.

You may say that this is an isolated case and it makes sense to ban trans-fats and we don't really need to go farther. Wrong. This is not about the substance being banned; it's about principle. This is a bad precedent being set. After all, if we can ban trans-fats, we can ban other things... and this is where the group known as Center for Science in the Public Interest comes in. You may have heard of these guys in the past; they're the group who at one point or another has said that pretty much EVERYTHING you eat is bad for you. They were also a party to the KFC lawsuit, and aside from KFC chicken, they also think you shouldn't be eating the following... (deep breath)... ice cream, chicken pot pies, cookies, cheesecakes, Frappachinos, Campbell's soup, and popcorn.

See, trans-fats are not the only things that can lead to heart disease. Ban Trans Fats states on its website, "The huge levels of saturated fat, salt and calories in KFC's products are very bad for heart health and weight and definitely not recommended." So I guess once we've banned trans-fats, we should go after high calorie foods and high sodium foods next, right? And if we can ban these things from restaurants, well, we can certainly ban them from the store shelves. What's next? Having the Food Police raiding people's homes? Getting tossed in the slammer because I've got an opened bag of potato chips in my car?

We KNOW this food is bad for us, but there is a significant number of people among us who DON'T CARE, apparently enough in number to keep Caroline Rhea working as host of "The Biggest Loser" for decades to come. Funny I should bring that show up, though, for as much as I don't like reality shows, you have to hand it to the people who appear on those programs. They actually are willing to do what it takes to lose weight and become healthy... WITHOUT suing anyone or trying to get unnecessary laws passed. They are willing to try self-discipline, and that's really what is missing in this country. People don't become obese overnight. They won't stop being obese overnight but it doesn't mean they can't try... without the government trying to fix the problem for them.