Smartest of the Bunch

Okay, The NY Restaurant Association proposal reported below is a little nuts, in my opinion. I'm a big proponent of eating well. I drink clean water, eat lots of veggies, use butter rather than margarine (when I can afford to) and try to go about being a good citizen of the earth. Still, this sort of legislation brings to mind the mandate which so many of us who have fought the "get out of our bedroom nazis" for years - KEEP YOUR LAWS OFF OUR BODIES.

Restaurants are perfectly capable of informing customers of what goes into their offerings and advertising accordingly. We consumers are perfectly free to choose where we want to dine and what we put in our bodies. You got a lot of experts in the piece below but the smartest of the bunch is Brooklyn waitress Karen Quam.

I read this report and this awful image kept running through my head. I was hungry and tired w/ my hand on my forehead, wrist bent and palm out. I had no idea what to eat. There was a cartoon caption over my head and it read, "Oh, Big Brother, tell me what to do, feed me, please?"

N.Y. Wants Trans Fats Off Restaurant Menus


NEW YORK - New York City wants restaurants to narrow their list of ingredients — and maybe some waistlines — by cutting out trans fats. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said the voluntary change could also help fight the city's biggest killer, heart disease.

To comply, chefs would have to dump many margarines and frying oils, and possibly reworking long-held recipes for baked goods.

The New York State Restaurant Association supports the effort, Executive Vice President E. Charles Hunt said in a health department release Wednesday.

The fats, found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, raise diners' chance of developing heart disease in much the same way that saturated meat and dairy fats do, raising overall and bad cholesterol while lowering good cholesterol, American Heart Association President Robert Eckel said in the release.

The Food and Drug Administration has already targeted trans fats. Nationwide, all foods containing the chemically modified oils must be labeled beginning next January.

Some workers and diners were skeptical of the city plan.

"Labeling is as far as you want to go. You don't want to be telling people what to eat," Brooklyn waitress Karen Quam told The New York Times.

The city's request came two years after it outlawed smoking in bars, restaurants and offices, citing concerns about the ill effects of secondhand smoke.

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