Posted on 09/26/2006 9:42:48 PM PDT by SheLion
The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously yesterday to move forward with plans to prohibit the city’s 20,000 restaurants from serving food that contains more than a minute amount of artificial trans fats, the chemically modified ingredients considered by doctors and nutritionists to increase the risk of heart disease.
The board, which is authorized to adopt the plan without the consent of any other agency, did not take that step yesterday, but it set in motion a period for written public comments, leading up a public hearing on Oct. 30 and a final vote in December.
Yesterday’s initiative appeared to ensure that the city would eventually take some formal action against artificial trans fats. If approved, the proposal voted on yesterday by the Board of Health would make New York the first large city in the country to strictly limit such fats in restaurants. Chicago is considering a similar prohibition affecting restaurants with less than $20 million in annual sales.
The New York prohibition would affect the city’s entire restaurant industry, by far the nation’s largest, from McDonald’s to fashionable bistros to street corner takeouts across the five boroughs.
The city would set a limit of a half-gram of artificial trans fats per serving of any menu item, sharply reducing most customers’ intake. The fats are commonly found in baked goods, like doughnuts and cakes, as well as breads and salad dressing.
Officials said that the typical American diet now contains 5.8 grams of trans fats per day, and that a single five-ounce serving of French fries at many restaurants contained 8 grams of trans fats.
Members of the Board of Health, all mayoral appointees, expressed vigorous support for the proposal, which was drafted by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The board members said that the initiative could set an example for the nation, and that New York City should play a leading role because of its high rate of heart disease and because New Yorkers consume more restaurant meals and takeout food than most Americans.
The proposal met immediate resistance among restaurant owners, who said banning trans fats would raise their costs and change the taste of some items. “I’m wondering if there are grounds for a lawsuit,” said E. Charles Hunt, executive vice president of the New York State Restaurant Association, which represents about 3,500 restaurants in the city.
The Board of Health vote comes a year after it conducted an unsuccessful campaign to persuade restaurants to eliminate trans fats from their recipes voluntarily. It said yesterday that despite mass mailings about the hazards of trans fats and training programs for 7,800 restaurant operators, about half the city’s restaurants continued to serve trans fats, about the same as before the campaign.
Trans fats, derived from partially hydrogenated oils, became popular in the 1950’s as an alternative to the saturated fats in butter. They allow fast-food restaurants to use frying oil for longer periods and make crunchier cookies and flakier pie crust. They also have a longer shelf life than butter, olive oil, corn oil or other alternatives.
Health officials said yesterday that many healthier alternative cooking ingredients had been developed that would cost little more than trans fats, and have little or no effect on taste.
Lynne D. Richardson, a member of the Board of Health and a professor of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said yesterday that restaurant owners might still see an advantage in the long shelf life of trans fat products.
“But human life is much more important than shelf life,” she said. “I would expect to see fewer people showing up in the emergency room with heart attacks if this policy is enacted.”
If the measure is adopted in December, health officials said, the restrictions would be phased in. Restaurants would be given until July to eliminate oils, margarines and shortening from the recipes that contain more than a half-gram of trans fat per serving.
They would also have until July 2008 to remove all menu items that exceed the new limit, including bread, cakes, chips and salad dressing. The only exclusions from the restrictions would be packaged food items, like candy, that remain in the manufacturers’ original packaging when served, as well as naturally occurring trans fats, which are found in some meats and dairy products.
Health officials said that the regulations would be enforced by restaurant inspectors, who would examine kitchens for products with trans fat, but that there would be no attempt to test prepared foods.
The New York City proposal comes at a time when companies in the packaged food industry, under pressure from health advocates, have reduced the use of trans fats. A recent ruling by the federal Food and Drug Administration requires all food companies to include trans fat levels in labeling information.
Several restaurant chains, including Wendy’s, Starbucks and Subway, have announced efforts to eliminate or sharply reduce trans fats. McDonald’s, which has not, “will closely examine the board’s proposal,” said Walt Riker, a company spokesman.
“Concerning trans fats, McDonald’s knows this is an important issue, which is why we will continue to test in earnest to find ways to further reduce” their use, he said.
For the Board of Health, the trans fat plan is the latest in a series of regulations that have placed New York City in the forefront of regulating behavior and products’ content in order to benefit public health.
Three years ago, the city banned smoking in restaurants, a measure angrily protested by some restaurant owners, but it led to similar bans in several other cities. Yesterday, health officials compared the restrictions on trans fats to the city’s 1960 prohibition on the use of lead paint, years before it was banned in most of the country.
“Like lead paint, artificial trans fat in food is invisible and dangerous, and it can be replaced,” said Thomas R. Frieden, the city’s health commissioner, after the Board of Health vote yesterday. “No one will miss it when it is gone.”
----------------------------------------------------
And Chuck Hunt in an AP piece:
“Labeling is one thing, but when they totally ban a product, it goes well beyond what we think is prudent and acceptable,” said Chuck Hunt, executive vice president of the city’s chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association.
I can't wait to taste the new pies!! No lard? Time to move back to Memphis.
When will this madness end? It's things like this that tick me off. The busybodies who intrude in every facet of our lives. This will spread. Any who disagree will be labeled monsters, and will back off.
you know what? LIFE will kill you. So maybe they should just ban that too. They've got a good enough start with abortions and euthanasia.
But they'll be require to hire transexual waiters/waitresses.
Bloomberg the mayor is worse than a RINO; he's a ROC (Republican of Convenience).
I just tried doing an extensive search for everyone who claimed that this wouldn't happen. Couldn't find 'em.
I was going to shoot 'em all a little ping.
(They're probably zotted, anyway. Agreeing with a RINO like Bloomberg on FR isn't the healthiest thing to do. It tends to have adverse side effects....)
Well, I never had any intention to go to NYC ever again anyway.... But if I had, I now wouldn't.
When a government entity makes a rule like this, it is a government COMPLETELY out of control, and should be replaced by one that understands the rights of businesses and consumers.
most yappers don't have a clue as to what this is about....obviously YOU do. This stuff is WORSE than any fat that nature produces, and the hell of it is that few lay people know the basics re heart disease.
"Metabolic studies have shown that trans fats have adverse effects on blood lipid levels--increasing LDL ("bad") cholesterol while decreasing HDL ("good") cholesterol. This combined effect on the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol is double that of saturated fatty acids.3
Trans fats have also been associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease in epidemiologic studies.4
Based on the available metabolic studies, we estimated in a 1994 report that approximately 30,000 premature coronary heart disease deaths annually could be attributable to consumption of trans fatty acids.4 "
..........
Conclusion
Five years ago evidence was strong that trans fat had deleterious impacts on blood lipids; ensuing studies have confirmed these metabolic findings and strengthened epidemiologic support for an important adverse effect on risk of coronary heart disease. These data highlight the need for rapid implementation of labeling requirements that include fast foods. Because partially hydrogenated fats can be eliminated from the food supply by changes in processing that do not require major efforts in education and behavioral modification, these changes would be an extremely efficient and rapid method for substantially reducing rates of coronary disease.
snipped from:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/reviews/transfats.html
citation for the actual study publication.....not yet free @ NEJM site:
1. Mozaffarian D, Katan MB, Ascherio A, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC. Trans fatty acids and cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med. 2006 Apr 13;354(15):1601-13.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/354/15/1601
How long have "we" (us degenerate, disgusting, insensitive, neer do well) smokers been warning all with the clarion call: "YOUR NEXT?"
I am amused and somewhat overjoyed to see this coming to pass.
Newww York City. Ha. Got to luv it.
With all of those libs there who are now on the receiving end and the thought of now having their "ox gored" is making my day.
With their favorite RINO Mayor (BloomingIdiot) supporting this, like he did the anti-smoking ordinances, its bound to be put into affect, post haste.
The smoking bans NEVER had anything to do with SMOKING.
It was always about the liberal mentality of "power and control" and for all the non-smokers who could have cared less, well, as the ol saying goes, the "the chickens (in this case the 'health Nazis') have come home to roost.
I can only hope that they take this to the same extreme as they have with smoking whereby they have the "Food Police" come into homes to make sure that parents are not "poisoning" their chilllens by feeding them fattening foods---it would serve them (all of those who had no pity on us) right.
I stopped going to restaurants a long time ago, so it makes me no never mind.
I'll continue to have extra butter on my baked spuds when I broil and nice thick porterhouse and wash it down with a reasonably good burgundy, to be followed by a pleasant smoke, in my own abode and God help anyone who tries and take my simple pleasures from me.
I'm almost 63, still work every day, (am in great health am NOT overweight) spent 18 months in Nam and I'll be damned if I'll let anyone tell me I can't enjoy the pursuits of whatever legal (the last time I checked) pleasures I wish to enjoy.
. ROC? That is excellent. Did you make that up? First I've heard it and I like it.
"Based upon actual results, it is KNOWN that approximately 40,000 "premature" deaths are "attributed" to automobile accidents EACH YEAR."
Why NOT BAN ALL CARS????
Hey, one inane statistic deserves another.
relax
Ignorance is bliss. Enjoy it.
This statement by the health commissar is technically true, but comparing lead paint on bulilding walls to trans fat in food is absolutely inane from a health protection point of view.
Poisoning from lead paint is almost entirely encoutered in very young children who would eat peeling paint without knowing any better. Lead toxicity causes severe brain damage in children. Consumption of trans fat in one's diet, on the other hand, is done with foreknowledge of possible risk by adults, and even so is just one of a number of factors that may contribute to coronary heart disease when done consistently over a long period of time. The health risk of a kid unknowingly ingesting lead constantly from peeling paint in his apartment is of a magnitude where statist intervention is justifiable; the health risk to an eater of french fries at one sitting at a restaurant is so infinitesimal that banning the trans fat is not warranted.
having the government control everyone's life.
Seems like something you enjoy.
Be gone, statist.
I would if I could, but I can't because I'm not a knee jerk, doo-doo, "gooder", in-your-face, lib--going to save us all from ourselves.
I'm someone who believes in "PERSONAL RESPONSISIBILITY" (ever heard the term) like all good Conservatives, and DOES NOT need anyone to "tell me" what I can or cannot do, as long as its LEGAL and does NOT harm anyone else.
If I choose to eat foods with trans fatty acids or drink or smoke (or drive) that's MY choice.
I know the risks. Life's a "risk." In fact, its so much as risk, that NO ONE IS GOING TO GET OUT ALIVE!!!!
No it puts lard back in to pies instead of veggie oil.
It would also make mcdonalds to go back to real french fries instead of veggie fries !
wrong.
I haven't said anything that indicates anything but the general publics ignorance of the transfat/LDL/HDL matter.
It has been more or less obscured, in deference to shelf life.
I WILL admit to having departed from the mindless rabid libertarian spirit of the thread, though.
You're right! Use coconut oil or lard or real butter in pies and real beef fat to fry McDonald's french fries! No more fake butter - give us the real food from the past.
This is a trend that I hope spreads.
In fact, their busybodiness is what started this in the first place! If it weren't for health nazi's, we'd all be happily using butter! I think they should have to spend personal funds to apologize, and then list all the things they have been wrong about in the last 30 years. After that they should go sit in a corner and STFU.
Based upon actual results,
nobody lives forever
sorry reviewing that last post appears sarcastic. I meant to be in agreement with you.
It is not a good reason for the government to start ordering restaurants around.
Look....I haven't said a single thing in support of banning it. I understand the process from the hydrogen to plaque. I also understand the various vested interests in this who benefit from keeping the public in the dark (shade, perhaps?) about it....best example is the pharmaceutical cottage industry in statin drugs followed closely by near infinite shelf life in baked goods and more.
My attitude toward gummint is equal to anyone here, trust me. But exposing oils to hydrogen and then feeding it to people is now well past the point of being an honest mistake. It is in no way comparable to spreading real butter on thick or eating a nicely marbled steak.
We no longer have rights. Everything we can/want to/will do, will be regulated according to the whims of those who "think they know better"(read: liberal minority, politicians, etc).
Amazing, after being in NYC earlier this year -- I wonder...
There are not many "heavy" people in the city after all that walking to and fro.
Buck had it right!
I Wouldn't Live In New York City (If They Gave Me The Whole Dang Town)"
It ain't nothin' but a concrete jungle with people packed like sardines
Where everybody's tryin' to live beyond their means
Where all the natives hurry and scurry too and fro
And like a fleas on a puppy dog they got no place to go.
I wouldn't live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town
Talk about a bummer it's the biggest one around
Sodom and Gommorah was tame to what I found
I wouldn't live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town.
Well, I ain't seen the sunshine since the day that I arrived
'Cause brother I've been busy a-tryin' to survive
Nobody knows you've been here till you're six feet under ground
Than you become a statistic if they remember to write you down.
I wouldn't live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town
Talk about a bummer it's the biggest one around
Sodom and Gommorah was tame to what I found
I wouldn't live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town...
http://thishell.net/lyrics_b/buck_owens_lyrics/i_wouldnt_live_in_new_york_city_lyrics.html
disk 3 #6
http://www.amazon.com/Buck-Owens-Collection-1959-1990/dp/B0000032UB
Presence in food
Trans fats occur naturally in the milk and body fat of ruminants (such as cows and sheep) at a level of 2-5% of total fat[4]. They originate in the rumens of these animals. Animal-based fats were once the only trans fats consumed, but by far the largest amount of trans fat consumed today is created by the processed food industry by partially hydrogenating unsaturated plant fats (generally vegetable oils). These have displaced natural solid fats and liquid oils in many areas, notably in the fast food, snack food, fried food and baked good industries. Vegetable shortenings are primarily trans fats packaged for home use, and some margarines contain a large proportion of them. Foods containing artificial trans fats formed by partially hydrogenating plant fats may contain up to 45% trans fat compared to their total fat.[4]
Benefits of hydrogenating plant-based fats for food manufacturers include an increased product shelf life and decreased refrigeration requirement. Partial hydrogenation raises the melting point of fat, producing a semi-solid material, which is much more desirable than liquid oils for use in baking. Plant-based hydrogenated vegetable oils are much less expensive than the animal fats traditionally favored by bakers, such as butter or lard.
Because partial hydrogenation of plant oils can replace animal fats, the resulting products can be consumed (barring other ingredient and preparation violations) by adherents to Kashrut (kosher) and Halal, as well as by adherents to vegetarianism in Buddhism, ahimsa in Jainism and Hinduism, veganism, and other forms of vegetarianism.
It has been established that trans fats in human milk fluctuate with maternal consumption of trans fat, and that the amount of trans fats in the bloodstream of breastfed infants fluctuates with the amounts found in their milk. Reported percentages of trans (compared to total fats) in human milk range from 1% in Spain, 2% in France and 4% in Germany to 7% in Canada[5].
Yeah you laugh but the other day I read there are more fatal car wrecks in the Summer and there is more Ice Cream sold in the summer. So apparently Ice Cream causes car wrecks.
So we need to Ban Ice Cream Immediately!
NYC and the idiot Mayor started with smoking bans. Now they are starting with foods that "they" think we should not eat. Next, NYC will be telling the people when they can go to the bathroom and have SEX.
This idiot Mayor has RUINED NYC!!!!
Don't give Mayor Bloomingdiot any ideas! He has RUINED New York City!!
Pity.
Mayor Blooming Idiot. Control Freak and Little Hitler!
Thank you! Just what I have been saying for months now.
He is a control freak and a Little Hitler!!!
Now you got more comments than my thread.
But who's fault is that?
Give a kid a gun.... What were the Republicans thinking?
Mayor Blooming Idiot has RUINED New York City. He is a control freak AND a litter Hitler.......................who's rich.
ugh
When do you suppose these busy bodies will start coming in to your kitchen and instruct you on how to cook stuff?
SheLion, you really pissed me off now. lol. You beat me to the punch.
I was putting the kids to sleep and I planned to come down afterwards and post the New York Times article about this.
This is a perfect example of what I am going to refer to as "Demand Side" Healthcare-onomics. We all remember Reagan and his "Supply Side" economics devotion to Milton Friedmans' economic theory...coined Reaganomics.
In the socialist world of healthcare entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, if government can't reduce the cost of medical care, they can grasp for straws and try to reduce the need for medical care. Otherwise, the Gubmint will go bankrupt as these costs consume an ever greater portion of the State's budget.
Of course, when the government's not so subtle effort to get people to eat healthier and quit smoking doesn't work, the next step will be punishment.
Read this from the Republican physicians at ACSH:
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.1319/healthissue_detail.asp
In answer to your question, my guess is probably next week.
Elizabeth Whelan from ACSH is either a genius or a psychic when she wrote:
When the government's phone calls and letters nagging people to eat better, quit smoking, and be more physically active don't work, the next phase of the war on chronic disease may be a harshly punitive one, with fines and other restrictions on those who fail to heed the health warnings. The message will be: live a healthy life or the government will punish you.
New York City's law mandating the reporting of diabetic blood tests is a harbinger of more intrusive legislation to come -- all in the name of "public health." It is high time we reflect upon the difference between public and private health, critically evaluate what role the government should play in the prevention of chronic disease, and carefully assess what cost we might pay in privacy and individual freedoms as the government performs "interventions" to protect us from ourselves.
And I thought SMOKING was the biggest killer. Which IS it???!!!
Someone hopefully challenges it in court. I don't see where this unelected body has the authority to ban a legal substance in NY or anywhere else. When the FDA attempts to do such a thing they are usually prohibited by court order so it's possible the food nazis in NYC will get the same treatment. If not, it'll never stop, they'll just keep coming up with more and more that they've decided isn't "good" for us.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here when I talk to you. But some other Republicans and Conservatives (I assume that's everyone here) don't seem to get it, much to my frustration and yours.
This "smoking" issue ties very closely into the Democrat's call for national healthcare like they have in Canada.
Me and you can quit smoking. Heck, I have uncles who have quit smoking 2 packs a day when they were in their 70's.
But the paranoid socialists in NY and CA only see the bill coming due for their healthcare give aways in 10-20 years. ie...bankruptcy, and Moody's and S&P downgrades of their bonds to Ba1 (junk bond territory for the uninitiated) status.
They can't possibly take on the unions or betray the poor entitled people who elected them to provide for their care.
What to do? What a quandry!
They're grasping for straws. Ban smoking in hopes that it will reduce their costs and save them from the same fate the befell the USSR.
And the Republicans and Conservatives on this site who understandably hate smoking buy into it because of their own personal comfort.
Don't hold it against them, SheLion. They mean well but they still don't get it. Let's keep trying. I think they'll see the truth eventually.
"When they came for the smokers, I said nothing, for I wasn't a smoker..."
One doesn't protest against smoking and trans-fat bans because one likes them. One protests against them because they love freedom. If one thinks their sacred cow can't be next, they're foolish.
No...anybody who disagrees with the food nazis will be treated like "hate criminals". After all, vegans sought "protected minority" status in California...thankfully the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (in one of their few smart decisions) rejected that.
You would think that the terrorist attacks on September 11th would have made New Yorkers appreciate the freedoms that they have.
Well, here's to all of you New York scumbags who support this ban : By pissing on your freedoms, you DESERVE to be enslaved and tortured by the New World Order. And to anybody afraid to speak out...gutless cowards deserve the same.
Can you expect anything less from Mike The ****?
Trust me...this issue of banning unhealthy foods will be ultimately decided by the SCotUS within five years. Of course, if the SCotUS decides banning unhealthy foods is unconstitutional, then it would be only a matter of time before illegal drugs are legalized.
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