The trans fat police crack down in Baltimore – Food Rant

It’s getting that we can’t eat unhealthy in major cities across these United States. In a growing trend, Baltimore has limited the amount of trans fats to less than 0.5 grams per serving. This means the local diner (with the waitresses who call everyone “Hon”) will serve lard-less cherry pies and french fries in peanut oil rather than partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. If you want to have your arteries hardened and blood pressure increased you’ll need to go outside the city limits.

I’m of two minds on this (in addition to the two minds I already have). On one side I can see the benefits to regulating these products; reduction and monitoring of trans fats leads to healthier and happier population, especially in a city like Baltimore, where heart disease is one of the leading causes of death.

On the other side, why should a city monitor trans fat intake when it should be the responsibility of the individual?

I wouldn’t say this is Big Brother looking over everyone’s shoulder to keep things under control. It’s more like Big Brother looking over everyone’s shoulder because everyone is lazy and doesn’t keep their own eating under control. Trans fats are bad; that’s agreeable. However, with a proper eating plan (not diet … I hate that word) and some exercise, trans fats won’t do the damage they would normally do if someone ate a whole bucket of fried chicken infused with the stuff.

Cities really shouldn’t be putting these programs into effect. Face it, we go to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston to chow down on the fattening stuff we can’t get in the suburbs. It’s up to the individual in those cases to control the amount of cheese steaks they devour or the amount of cannolis they consume at Mike’s Pastry. Reducing the amount of trans fats isn’t going to reduce the health conditions of the populace as long as they continue to eat the way they do.

What do you think? Does monitoring of trans fats (and in some cases, sodium content) really help the population of a city become healthier?

Clacked by Richard Keller
on Sep 21, 2009 @ 12:53 EST5EDT