Posted on 01/14/2010 7:36:44 AM PST by GOP_Lady
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has fashioned himself a kind of “Dr. Mike,” has declared war on salt in food.
The city this week announced voluntary guidelines intended to reduce salt levels by 25 percent over five years.
This effort follows the mayor’s earlier wars against transfats in food, unreported calories in chain restaurants, and smoking in public places.
The mayor, a former smoker, concedes a fondness for salt.
For one thing, his favorites foods are hot dogs and popcorn.
He’s also known to be liberal with the salt shaker, even applying table salt to his pizza, as if your average pizza actually needed any more salt.
(Please, should you ever see someone salting their pizza, don’t try to intervene — just dial 911 and step back. Saving a hypertensive individual who is salting a pizza is the work of a trained professional.)
Yes, the mayor’s heart is in the right place. He has focused on some commonsense measures intended to make New York City residents healthier by changing habits and accepted custom.
Smartly targeted improvement of the lifestyles of 8.4 million New Yorkers may do more long-term good than the building of 100 small parks. Unlike such parks, however, a politician can’t attach a single plaque flattering a campaign contributor to an absent salt shaker.
Transfats clog arteries. The health liabilities of smoking are numerous and well-documented.
As for salt, Americans consume about twice as much salt as is healthy. Salt can raise blood pressure, contributing to the incidence of heart attacks and strokes.
Accordingly, the guidelines call for a 20 percent drop in the salt in peanut butter, a 40 percent reduction in canned vegetables and a 25 percent reduction for cold cuts.
It is, well, interesting that Bloomberg’s initiative against salt comes on the heels of news that the city has been distributing a brochure on how to more safely shoot up illegal drugs.
Mayor Mike, who fell into politics after making himself a multibillionaire as a media entrepreneur, seems bent on being Dr. Mike.
With the city suffering as much as any large city from the effects of the Great Recession, Bloomberg might do well to remember he was elected mayor, not surgeon general.
Hey! Do we have the day off together, or are you goofing around at work? ;)
Guess I need to start stockpiling salt. New Yorkers will pay top dollar for it in the near future! :)
‘First they came for the saltshakers,,,’
If you see a person using a salt shaker, remember to call the salt snitch line.
Food Makers Quietly Cut Back on Salt
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703585704574650562683895666.html
No, his heart is NOT in the right place. He is a damn fascist and intends to FORCE his will on others. Keep it in NYC with the morons that continue to elect him, going so far as to change the rules to allow more than 2 terms.
Remember, what he does in NYC he wants done nationally.
I don't even want to visit NYC because of this man.
He called Bloomberg an “idiot.”
My daughter lived in NYC and I got to the point of hating to go there...and I once loved NYC.
Daddy Bloomberg, PING!
Bloomberg = Silly man with a lot of money.
Alexander Dumas already told this story in “The Count of Monte Cristo”.
His story was much more entertaining.
Emperor Bloomberg is trying to play God, but unintended consequences are a bitch.
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