I know many libertarians will decry this move as another attempt by the nanny state to protect us from things we might not want to be protected from:
Following the New York City Board of Health's unanimous decision to phase trans fats off the city's restaurant menus, experts say the move could be an important step in saving many people from heart disease.
Restaurateurs and others, however, say the decision could have a devastating impact on New York's restaurant industry, and it might not even make restaurant food that much healthier.
But it isn't just the restaurant patron eating the food -- perhaps unsuspecting of what is being consumed -- that is being protected. I have many friends, mostly female, who claim that they gain weight merely by looking at overly rich food. This is a brave stand against secondhand fat.
Comments
"Restaurateurs and others, however, say the decision could have a devastating impact on New York's restaurant industry, and it might not even make restaurant food that much healthier."
Hand-waving...
>I have many friends, mostly female, who
>claim that they gain weight merely by
>looking at overly rich food.
So L.A. Weight Loss should sell blinders too? Wait a minute, keep this under your hat until I make a blinder infomercial deal with Kirstie & friends.
Me and Lt. Savik (obscure Star Trek reference) will make a bundle.
On a more serious note, I suddenly feel obligated to say that for years I've wondered why food processors, whether they sell to restaurants or supermarkets or both, can't provide Americans with less fattening food products -- besides rice cakes, that is.
Since most processed food these days (and I include fast food here) is based upon artificial flavors, colors, stabilizers and preservatives, can't the chefs (aka the chemists) at our favorite restaurants, as well as the purveyors of our favorite frozen dinners, provide filling meals without overloading us with undesirable elements? They sure have no trouble leaving out some of the healthier ingredients.
I'm only partly kidding, as the subject of almost all food in America other than fresh meat and produce is a matter of what we used to call "better living through chemistry."
I can't believe these folks in the white smocks are incapable of changing the recipes in ways that provide Americans the flavor and the fill without the bloat and excess pounds.
Don't get me wrong -- re-formulating fast and/or processed food is nobody's concept of an American nutritional ideal, but in the real world, when we eat so much of the processed stuff rather than cook from scratch, surely they can all do a lot better in the 21st century and still deliver attractive, tasty meals. Maybe even more attractive, tastier meals, with a little thought. I doubt the R&D would even cost much in the big picture.
Just give me the same selection of products I've always had, re-formulated a bit for people who either don't exercise as much as the ideal or who are just old enough to have metabolisms slowing to a degree that makes it tough to maintain a lean weight.
I don't expect perfection, but the lack of improvement is a bit shocking. I can't imagine that companies like Stouffer's, for example, can't manage to put the rice cake out of business, if they just expend a little effort on the question.
Then I can stock the freezer, as a single guy, with dinners that will provide nutrients without the excess calories. I'd consider that a win-win for me and Stouffer's, personally speaking.
What the heck, I just copied off my above post and sent it to Stouffer's. If they can't make tasty non-fattening dinners happen it probably can't yet be done.
After all, why complain to a newspaper only, when one can also at least attempt to offer the suggestions directly to those who can actually make the changes? Maybe you get a hint of just how much I hate rice cakes....
Something needs to be done and trans fat is not good for our health. Even if it did not have that much affect on our overall weight, it causes high cholsterol and clogging of arteries which leads to heart problems. I think the cost to companies eliminating it would be minimal considering how many billions of dollars they make. They may have to shave a few million dollars off of their CEO budget.
McDonald's and other fast food chains in Europe don't seem to have had any problems drastically reducing trans fats in their meals. I guess they don't talk to their American counterparts...
I got a personal response from somebody at Stouffer's, but it was an explanation of the need for some preservatives and the current effort to reduce popular evils like the trans fats.
I probably didn't make myself clear enough. I'd like to find out whether it's possible to make frozen dinners from meatloaf to chicken cordon bleu with no more calories than the rice cakes, but keep the flavor in.
Sort of like the Diet Rite of Salisbury Steak, you know? Rather than pick on one thing, whether trans fat or preservatives.
Figure out how few calories most Americans now can eat in 3 meals per day without gaining a pound. Then invent those stick-to-the-ribs, just-as-tasty meals in place of the clearly fattening stuff we have to put up with now from every maker on the frozen dinner aisle.
Like I said, a fast or frozen dinner alternative to the rice cake. But no dieting would be involved since your habits regarding the processed foods you eat would not change. Only the fattening property of the processed food would change.
I know it's a challenge, but so was Reagan's Star Wars. Do you really have to take the food out of food to get the calories near zero these days? I'm betting there are those who will answer "No."
I repeat as a footnote, fast/frozen/processed food isn't an ideal balanced lifestyle, but so many of us eat so much of it anyway (and researchers point to it as one of our big problems along with lack of exercise) that the concerted attempt to prevent all our packaged food from putting pounds on your average modern American is worth a serious effort. Sort of like when Kennedy said we will go to the moon by 1969.
No snickering in my direction allowed -- some laughed at the Wright Brothers.
Most likely whatever they do to the food will inevitably make it worse for you regardless of the reduction in calories - just like the current trans fat dilemma.
In general, I try not to eat anything that doesn't go bad in a week. Almost anything in a box is out of the question.
But to each their own...
I think all of you people are sick, every food that you've eat have some type of problem! why bother to eat at all phsycos. I think that's why american people always sick and unhealthy. By the way not only obese people are unhealthy skinny people are unhealthy as well. you are so skinny and all people can touch is skin and bones you might as well get in your coffin and die. for some of american even fruit is not good for you unless you count this and that, that is sickning! you wonder why our teenager have so low self esteem and have no self-confident and are doing so poorly it is because we are feeding them with garbage. they either turn to food for comfort or not eating the way they should I say stop the madness right now you are a bunch of low self-esteem insecure people stop stop it
Well, we know NOW who's got too much caffeine in their system...don't we?
;)
B.G.
Well, we know NOW who's got too much caffeine in their system...don't we?
;)
B.G.