This is getting ridiculous
28 September 2006 by Stardust
Should the government outlaw trans fats? In Chicago and New York, there’s a movement afoot to outlaw them. I can understand banning smoking in restaurants, workplaces and other public areas since second hand smoke affects the health of others and is especially dangerous to those who already have respiratory problems, but isn’t banning approved food ingredients going a bit overboard? Will we all soon be having the government decide our menus for us? Most of us know why they’re unhealthy: Trans fats clog arteries, have been linked to heart disease and may raise the risk of diabetes. But lots of things that we eat everyday are bad for us. White bread is bad, sugar is bad, etc. Will these things be banned next? Chocolate cake? Ice Cream? Skittles?
28 September 2006, on 8:55 pm
on this particular issue, i’ll have to disagree with your commentary.
trans-fats were universally shat upon by the dietary and scientific community during the process of their development in the first half of the 20th century. the only reason this “ingredient” has found it’s way into our food is because of the greased palms (no pun intended) of the politicians and regulatory boards that are supposed to oversee this stuff in the first place. at one point this fat substitute may have seemed advantageous when it came to keeping foods shelf stable during WW2, but beyond that i don’t see the utility.
this proposal is coming now because our elected officials failed to protect our best interests for the last 50+ years. conclusive evidence of the long-term disastrous effects that hydrogenated oils can have on the human body has become more prevelant recently, and i couldn’t be happier.
we’re not talking about stopping a restaurant from using fats or lards; we’re talking about stopping the use of a synthetic chemical foodstuff created from industrial-grade vegetable waste oils. hydrogeneted oils are a fat substitute that allows a manufacturer to save money, and nothing more. any food that uses these substances can be made with their naturally found counterparts. and the country would be better for it.
28 September 2006, on 9:57 pm
YARN WOMB!
That is all.
28 September 2006, on 10:01 pm
we’re not talking about stopping a restaurant from using fats or lards; we’re talking about stopping the use of a synthetic chemical foodstuff created from industrial-grade vegetable waste oils
I see your point. I am all for healthy diets (my kids are vegetarian health nuts and my husband and I avoid fast food) But will this government “deciding what’s best for us” keep going on to other things that are bad for us and cause health problems? Like my son would love to see high fructose corn syrup banned. Should it be next on the list? Will the government start creating a list of banned food ingredients? Will we all eventually be forced to cook with only “pure” ingredients that the government approves for us?
28 September 2006, on 10:23 pm
White bread is bad, sugar is bad
All I can hear in my head is that teacher from South Park saying, “Drugs are bad.”
28 September 2006, on 10:38 pm
I don’t agree with the government sticking their fingers into any pie that I want to eat (unless I can get a good bite on some of those fat fingers), but if the scientific data supports the danger of a chemical (some additives to food have been proven to be dangerous and were banned from use, i.e. safrole, cobalt salts, nitrogen trichloride, some artificial colorings) then it is prudent to protect the public from unscrupulous or ill-informed manufacturers. It’s a little like banning the use of animal products in cow feed which led to the mad cow disease problem we’re currently facing. We do want governments to listen to scientists.
Now if there were a ban on eating pork because of some religious teachings handed down by Moses or Muhammad, or banning all meat consumption because of Hindu teachings, then we have a big problem.
28 September 2006, on 10:43 pm
if the scientific data supports the danger of a chemical (some additives to food have been proven to be dangerous and were banned from use, i.e. safrole, cobalt salts, nitrogen trichloride, some artificial colorings) then it is prudent to protect the public from unscrupulous or ill-informed manufacturers.
Then if this ingredient is so threatening, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should UNapprove it nationally.
28 September 2006, on 10:47 pm
They really should also do away with aspartame and flouride before trans fat.
28 September 2006, on 10:53 pm
Matt, Aspartame almost killed my friend’s husband when he had a reaction to it.
Aspartame is made up of three chemicals. It is a mixture of 40 percent aspartic acid, 50 percent of phenylalanine, and 10 percent of methanol. Yummy.
29 September 2006, on 1:37 am
well, the reasons for why the government doesn’t unilaterally ban the stuff are unknown to me. the FDA and USDA are mysterious beasts, and usually do a better job of schilling products for the industries they are meant to regulate than actually regulating. american food pyramid, anyone? diet pills? mad cow?
high fructose corn syrup is another sketchy product, but i’m not really familiar with whatever side effects or problems it might cause.
i understand the instinct to shy away from government regulation when it comes to something as seemingly benign and essential as our food. but this information is coming from the scientific community, and not federal legislatures. it’s not like the Lard Lobby suddently shelled out a lot of dough to promote the side effects of fat substitutes. the precedent for government intervention was set decades ago, and i think we’re a little better for it. even though the legislation clearly leaves much to be desired.
besides, people used to call all kinds of unsavory bullshit “food” before the government started creating regulations. i’m happy i can eat a hot dog without wondering wether it’s made of lips and assholes.
29 September 2006, on 2:24 am
The FDA could care less about what is “good” or “bad” for the American public. Look at the number of drugs that were recently fast tracked to the public and have now been pulled because of the disasterous effects.
The best reason to pull such things as trans fats and high fructose corn syrup are because they are bad and they are pushed because they are low-cost alternatives to natural foods. The less fortunate members of society (the same ones on government funded health care) are eating a disproportionately high amount of the cheaper, radically unhealthy foods. In the end, this leads to higher social costs for all of us through higher health care spending. Industry makes a few more cents by adding crap to the food, and the rest of us spend a few more cents on the social welfare net.
I’m all for capitalism, but government regulation is needed when the social costs are not added to the free market equation.
29 September 2006, on 8:05 am
Why should the government ban any of these things? If I want to eat trans-fat, then let me eat it damn it. If a privately owned resturaunt wants to serve it, let them. No ones forcing you to go there and fill up with “toxins.”
29 September 2006, on 8:32 am
Why should the government ban any of these things? If I want to eat trans-fat, then let me eat it damn it. If a privately owned resturaunt wants to serve it, let them. No ones forcing you to go there and fill up with “toxins.”
Will - I agree. People are already making the choice on their own and many restaurants are no longer using it…by their own choice. The word here is CHOICE. Like smoking, or drinking, or eating Hostess Ho-hos for every meal. Not smart…but your choice.
Butter also clogs arteries…and I am talking real butter. My parents are butter and grease gluttons…bacon and sausage grease. The southern people in my family eat mass quantities of greasy breakfast gravy, eggs every day and a couple of them have had quadruple by-pass surgery. Should the food police ban things like mayonnaise or Hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated coconut oil that is often used in non-dairy? The American Heart Association, advised that coconut oil’s high saturated fat content was detrimental to cardiovascular health and promotes heart disease. I mean…people need to start taking responsibility for their diets…which many, many are already by their own choice.
29 September 2006, on 10:04 am
I don’t see this working. As soon as the ban is put in effect, some chain of restaurants will file suit based on the fact that the FDA does not ban the substances and their comsumption is voluntary (unlike second hand smoke). The only effective way to do this is by putting pressure on the FDA, the success of which I find highly unlikely.
29 September 2006, on 1:55 pm
[pure hopeful sarcasm] Instead of banning an ingredient, they could impose a weight limit with allowances for height, build, and gender. I don’t mean that every girl should be 110 pounds (ew!), but that people should be required to remain under, say, 200 pounds. High fines for those who weigh more (or less) than their specified weight range. Special permits for sumo wrestlers and the like would, of course, be available so that they could continue their livelihoods. And those with weight gain-related health problems, such as thyroid problems. Special incentives for those who remain in an optimum healthy weight zone (+/- 20 pounds). Granted, people could eat ANYTHING they want. As long as they exercise enough to maintain their health, it shouldn’t be a problem. Along with regulations, they could have forced Dance Dance Revolution camps where people must do an hour of DDR per day. (That’s what I do, much better than going to a gym with other people.)People in this country need some fucking motivation and the thing they listen to is their damned wallets.[/pure hopeful sarcasm]
I live in Louisiana. I visit Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi often. This is where we need that kind of ban. NYC in particular has so many underweight, heroine chic people that there should be no reason for a ban (perhaps that’s more stereotypical than I think). I don’t like the idea of the government meddling with my food outside of FDA (what a joke!) jurisdiction. However, I work in an office with 24 other people. I would estimate that 14 of those people range from obese to morbidly obese. That’s my one department, which is unusually skinny, overall, compared to the other departments. 6 out of 7 VPs at my company are at some level obese. This is fucking ridiculous.
Oh, and parents need to give a shit.
29 September 2006, on 2:08 pm
If I want to eat trans-fat, then let me eat it damn it. If a privately owned resturaunt wants to serve it, let them. No ones forcing you to go there and fill up with “toxins.”
Maybe we can treat this the same way we deal with cigarettes (warning labels on all products that contain trans fats - including restaurant menus)? Also, spend some money on a public campaign to educate people about the dangers of trans fats. That should satisfy Will because then nobody is banning trans fats but the consumer will be able to make an educated decision and also they will know when they are eating trans fats.
I mean…people need to start taking responsibility for their diets…which many, many are already by their own choice.
Yes, and I would add that those many are often those who can afford to do so. I personally shop at a locally owned “health food” store. Why? Because, at my local Safeway, the vast majority of processed foodstuffs contains trans-fats. Safeway doesn’t carry many of the off-brands that don’t contain trans-fats (and it also carries way more enriched white flour crap instead of whole wheat products). Why? My guess is because they are more expensive and most people at Safeway wouldn’t buy them. Thus, they stock their shelves with the cheap nutritionally-poor stuff instead of the more expensive but nutritionally-better-for-you products. I can easily spend $25-50 more at my local health food store than I can at Safeway for comparable products. So maybe instead of banning trans-fats, we ought to put a tax on trans-fat containing products so that non-trans fat products can compete?
Also, remember that a lot of the people who eat a lot of trans-fat products are children who have relatively little control over their own diets. Just as I detest the idea of Coke or Pepsi getting their foot inside the door of schools with exclusivity contracts and pressuring schools to sell their products to children, maybe we can convince schools to stop serving unhealthy food? But seeing as most people don’t seem to be willing to fund basic education nowadays, I doubt it.
29 September 2006, on 2:15 pm
Bean - great satire!
I don’t think banning one ingredient in two cities that are so full of choices is going to make a difference. For every fast food joint in the Chicagoland area I can find a healthy food restaurant and business is booming for both types.
McDeath, Burger King, etc have all been offering salads for awhile now as an alternative to greasy burgers and fries. Wendy’s even offers a fruit bowl now. So, what do people choose? The greasy tasty crap of course! (I have seen people get the salad AND the burger, as if the salad will cancel out the cholesterol!) Should we close down McDeath’s and other fast food places since people can’t be trusted to make healthy eating choices on their own? People have the information, children are taught how to eat healthy in health and nutrition classes in school. Parents do need to care more. In this rush, rush world it’s just too easy to go through the drive-thru to pick something up.
29 September 2006, on 2:20 pm
Yes, and I would add that those many are often those who can afford to do so.
Bruce, you are right about that! My son and his fiancee who are vegetarians spend about three times what my husband and I spend on groceries each week because they shop at Whole Foods and buy only organic and stuff without additives or chemicals. I just went to the local Jewel store yesterday and spent $40 on salad stuff! And that’s not even organic. Now that I am getting older I really have to watch what I eat and eating well costs a lot more. (Which I think is illogical for things with fewer ingredients to cost more.)
29 September 2006, on 2:34 pm
But it’s not necessary to be a vegetarian or eat “health food” in order to eat better foods. Those using income as a limiting factor in food choices need to examine what they’re buying. $40 for salad stuff? I’d love to know what’s in THAT salad! Did you buy the vegetables for it, or a prepackaged salad bag? Or does this include containers of seasonings and herbs that you will use repeatedly? Soda, cookies, chips, prepackaged foods, etc. are really expensive. Fresh vegetables at a store like Wal-Mart or Super 1 are not (you can’t be too picky about where you shop if you are low income).
29 September 2006, on 2:36 pm
Oh, and thanks, Stardust. It was mostly satire mixed with some wishful thinking.
29 September 2006, on 2:38 pm
Stardust- You are so right. Whole Foods is so expensive and only upper middle class folks can really afford it. (AND, because what constitutes an organic product is so vague, there’s no guarantee that it really is anyway…)
What’s REALLY ironic, of course, is that in other, poorer countries the notion of trans-fat isn’t even an issue, as so many are just trying to survive.
I was surprised when we went to China (where my wife is from) that all these issues about healthy food (and other things too, like animal rights and censorship, which are huge here in the states) are so on the backburner as to almost be nonexistant. It’s hard to care about what kind of food you’re eating when you’re not even sure you WILL eat.
29 September 2006, on 2:44 pm
I can see both sides of this issue fairly clearly, choice vs. government regulation, and I tend to lean toward choice but with an accompanying flood of scientific information (warning labels seem a pretty good idea to me). My main beef (pun intended) is what I agree with Bruce about: healthier foods somehow need to made as easily and cheaply to buy as the unhealthier stuff.
If I could, I’d buy all my groceries at my local vegan/vegetarian/organic store, which includes all information on where they source their products, how they’re produced, and what they contain - but the difference between them and my local Winn Dixie is often astronomical! Even at a regular supermarket, you get more bang for your buck (and feed more people) buying inexpensive spaghetti and canned or jarred sauce than fresh fish or poultry, veggies, and whole grains.
Healthier? No. But as someone who’s had to figure out how to feed herself for two weeks on the $20.00 left in her pocket (and not because I was irresponsible with my money, either; due to circumstances I was living at the poverty line) in a South Florida city where everything is twice as expensive as elsewhere, I know exactly why poor people tend to be fatter. When you’re clutching those 20 bucks and trying to make up your mind whether to buy the two-foot-long bag of cheap sliced white bread or the six-inch-long whole grain loaf that’s three times as expensive, that’s when you say to yourself, “This is fucked up.”
The solution? I’m not sure. I’d certainly like to decrease poverty, that’s for sure, but there must be some way to make healthier food more cost-effective, both for the producer and the consumer. I know it’s more expensive to produce organic and safer foods, so there are probably a lot of factors I just don’t know about.
29 September 2006, on 3:04 pm
$40 for salad stuff? I’d love to know what’s in THAT salad!
Bean - I buy enough to make meal salads in tupperware bowls for the week. “Real” lettuce here costs a fortune in the Chicago area. Iceberg lettuce even costs $2 a head. I did buy the pre-packaged lettuce and carrots part of the salad (usually 2 for $5 if on sale but sale stuff is already starting to rot so I end up paying $3.50 a bag), but the rest was all loose veggies,(cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions, green peppers, radishes, mushrooms, etc.) and I included my fruit without thinking…so it was close to $30 for the salad stuff. Fruit here is outrageous lately.
29 September 2006, on 3:31 pm
Bean, I do see your point; there are a lot of unhealthy eating habits here in the US as well as other factors, regardless of financial limits. I’m also concerned about the backlash I see in some sectors against being thin; I hear a lot of rhetoric that swings too far in the opposite direction (”I’m big, and I’m going to stay big, and I’m fine big”).
Well, no, not if your BMI, “bad” cholesterol, sugar, and blood pressure are sky-high. Not if your particular “big” is morbidly obese. Not if you can’t walk from your car into the supermarket and do your food shopping without losing your breath or getting your feet so sore you have to take the weight off them. I guess this whole issue of national food and health has to be tackled on a lot of different fronts?
29 September 2006, on 3:32 pm
Star, those prices sound a lot like here in South Florida’s Dade and Broward Counties…
29 September 2006, on 3:41 pm
I guess this whole issue of national food and health has to be tackled on a lot of different fronts?
Eve, you said it. Obesity is a huge problem (unintentional pun till I realized what I wrote). I am not obese, but as I age it is more difficult to keep my weight down and healthy choices do matter to me and my husband because we want to avoid problems. I have read the articles about trans fats and other unhealthy ingredients a long time ago and we pay attention to labels more now and what we put into our stomach. I have changed the way I cook..using cooking sprays instead of oils, no fried foods, etc. But it’s like a lot of people don’t care about it. I think doctors should be more informative about people’s obesity. It’s like they are afraid to offend people. My mother was overweight for years until she got diabetes and the doctor “suggested nicely” that she should “see a dietician” and “lose a few pounds” and my mother just blew it off like it wasn’t that big of a deal and now she is diabetic and has other problems.
29 September 2006, on 3:47 pm
Star, those prices sound a lot like here in South Florida’s Dade and Broward Counties…
Eve, like my title of this post says…it’s ridiculous what we have to pay for food. I watch for sales, but like I said, produce that is on sale is on its last legs and already starting to decompose so you’d have to eat it the day you buy it and who can afford the gas to drive back and forth to the grocery store every day? You’d end up spending more than just buying the fresher non-sale produce. I don’t know how people with kids afford it. Prices weren’t like this when my kids were growing up. (I am sounding more and more like an old person, aren’t I?)
29 September 2006, on 4:02 pm
I just thought of a couple more points about this banning cooking oil thing…
Scientific evidence has proven that smoking is hazardous to one’s health and also for those who are even in the vicinity of the smoker, yet smoking is not banned — just WHERE you can smoke is banned. How about starting with something that hasn’t just been proven harmful, but DEADLY? How about alcohol? How many people kill their livers each year with booze…and kill others when they get behind a wheel and drive while drunk? I’m not advocating banning these things, but just pointing out that with all the other things people can injure their health with, banning cooking oil seems kind of lame.
29 September 2006, on 6:46 pm
Star, if I didn’t have the brownest thumb on the face of the planet (I’ve killed cacti simply by owning them), I’d seriously think about starting my own veggie and fruit garden. That does take time, effort, assistance, and vigilance, though; the grackles (raven/blackbird cousins here in South Florida) outnumber me by about a hundred to one - and they ain’t scared of nothing! I can just see myself hurrying home one evening from work looking forward to a salad made with fresh veggies from my own garden - only to arrive at an “abomination of desolation.”
I don’t think the ban will work; I’m surprised they’re going to try it, though. I would have thought they would have targeted aspartame first, like some of you already said.
29 September 2006, on 11:43 pm
I’m all for the ban! I’m glad that some people are talking about doing it here in madison, wi too! I pay my health insurance knowing that somebody who is eating trans fats is driving my rates up. Who wins with trans - fats legal? The manufacturers that are cheaping out and the medical industry. I guess I just think that government should function. I think more bans on unhealthy products (alcohol, tobacco, aspertame, high fructose corn syrup, etc.) would help out society and save dollars and lives. To me freedom is about stuff like fair trial and voting rights, not corporations rights to profit off of the masses illnesses.
30 September 2006, on 12:09 am
“I guess this whole issue of national food and health has to be tackled on a lot of different fronts?” (Eve)
Yeah, it really needs to start with kids. Parents need to be the ones taking responsibility and teaching their kids to eat greens and such at an early age. My daughter started eating fresh spinach, raw onions, pickled radish and carrot, etc. at an early age. She never knew that other kids didn’t like them until she got to school with other kids and started emulating them. Now she’s reduced a lot of her food choices, and we’ve had to reintroduce some foods over time. Her favorites are onions, calamari, all olives, and cherries.
Stardust: OMFSM!!! I suppose I take our cheap prices for granted. I never realized that the larger cities were so expensive! I suppose a lot of the “cheap” produce I was talking about is grown near here. I know lots of things are. My apologies for not realizing that you guys have to pay so much for fresh foods. The only really expensive things here are avocados, which are like $2 a piece! No wonder your salad was so expensive!! I can’t imagine that.
I guess, in the end, it’s easier to be poor here than in a bigcity. That seems ridiculous. However, even here, where fresh vegetables are so cheap, the less fortunate don’t take advantage of it. I get so angry when I see coke, chips, and cookies in someone’s bag - easily $15.00 - and know that my family could eat for two weeks on that amount of money by purchasing ingredients instead of processed/packaged junk food.
I still stand by my argument that the poor should grow their own food. I’ve known hunger and that’s what got my family through the lean times. (And lack of land is not a viable argument as planter boxes do just fine.)
30 September 2006, on 12:23 am
Oh, all this talk of fresh fruits and vegetables and the cost. Yes, I hate buying rubbery cucumbers and wilted lettuce and tasteless tomatoes at the grocery store. The cucumbers we grew in some raised planters were so fresh and crunchy. The difference in fresh home-grown food is amazing. We have had fresh green beans from our vines for the last 3 months, enjoying a feed every night. At the farmer’s vegetable market they are charging $3/quart basket. I think we’ve eaten $200 worth from our own garden. We had so many bartlett pears from our one tree this year we were giving them away to family and friends. So sweet and taste heavenly compared to the hard tasteless examples on the produce stands. And plums were literally dripping from the branches of our plum trees. One friend calls them candy they are so sweet. If there is any possible way you can grow your own food, do. It is so absolutely worth it.
30 September 2006, on 9:57 am
All this talk of vegetable gardens has made me feel like I have been lazy, which I have been. We used to have a great big vegetable garden when we were younger. I think I am getting inspired to get back at it in the spring!
Jimmy Dean - banning those products won’t make a difference to people who want to eat stuff that isn’t good for them. My grandmother who lived her whole life on a farm in North Carolina grew her own food, and made EVERYTHING from scratch. No artificial ingredients or preservatives. She had biscuits, butter, eggs and gravy every day. Jams and jellies and cobblers and pies…she cooked everything with bacon/sausage fat. This is pretty much a common southern diet…ALL of my southern relatives and friends eat like this. My grandmother had diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol which led to several strokes which left her with brain damage, and she had severe circulatory problems in her legs.
So, as far as banning some ingredients to make people’s lives healthier by force in order to keep insurance rates down is NOT the answer. Like Eve said it is a complex problem. People have to choose to eat better. The only way the government can control people’s diets is to close down all food stores and restaurants and ration “good” food to everyone (then they would form black market groups to sell junk food and ingredients underground.) The only reason big corporations get rich off of things that make us sick is because WE BUY IT. If people stopped buying it, there would be no market for it. They would start marketing the healthy stuff. Corporations give people what they ask for.
30 September 2006, on 2:39 pm
“If people stopped buying it, there would be no market for it. They would start marketing the healthy stuff. Corporations give people what they ask for.”
Yes, Stardust, this is true. Generally speaking we’ve become lazy about judging for ourselves the healthiness of food and depend too much on a government agency to determine this for us. If everyone just quit buying any food product that had ingredients on the label that are incomprehensible there would be a complete shift in what shows up in the grocery store aisles.
1 October 2006, on 3:55 am
I’m sorry to hear about your frandmother stardust, but I bet she would’ve had it even worse with the artificial stuff (had she cooked it in crisco instead of pork fat). I highly doubt that a black market would be providing much of these ingrediants to people. I agree that people should take some responsibility, but still don’t see what harm a ban does. On a side note, my buddy is running his truck on waste grease from chinese restaurants. He had to pay a bit for the conversion, but it’s paying itself off real quickly. He can only use non - hydrogenated oil, because hydrogenated would clog up the system.
1 October 2006, on 9:34 am
On a side note, my buddy is running his truck on waste grease from chinese restaurants. He had to pay a bit for the conversion, but it’s paying itself off real quickly.
Jimmy Dean - OMFSM! You don’t happen to know my two 31-year-old tofu twin nephews do you? (These are my husband’s brother’s sons who live in Lanesville, Indiana near Louisville, KY who are quite eccentric.) They went to Florida to haul back a certain model of older Mercedes and converted it to run on waste oil. They go to restaurants to collect the oil and they have the car running on that. It’s extremely time consuming, but since they don’t work real jobs they have plenty of time.
My bet is that if comnpanies started selling it for cars it would cost twice as much as gasoline.
1 October 2006, on 1:19 pm
trans fats should be banned and so should high fructose corn syrup.
It’s REALLY REALLY hard to find products without HFCS, like say bread. I have to hunt through the bread to find the one kind that doesn’t have it or go to the fancy bread shop just to get a loaf of bread.
True, there are other things that are bad in your food, but we have to draw the line somehwere, otherwise you won’t be able to find food in the future that isn’t riddled with unhealthy, albiet cheap, ingredients.
1 October 2006, on 1:34 pm
I’m sorry to hear about your frandmother stardust, but I bet she would’ve had it even worse with the artificial stuff (had she cooked it in crisco instead of pork fat).
I’ve been thinking about this and looking around at the older people I know and it is puzzling that my 93-year-old aunt who lives here in the Chicago area has eaten a lot of junk food, loves her beer and still eats out alot and she has been extremely healthy her whole life and has never had blood pressure problems, no heart or circulatory problems and still drives. She is very vary active.
Maybe many people are looking for something to blame for their obesity and health problems on instead of admitting their laziness about exercise and making an effort to stay in shape???
(I admit that I am lazy about exercise. Working at staying fit takes a lot effort and self-discipline!)
1 October 2006, on 3:10 pm
Here’s a thought…maybe this whole banning the trans-fat thing is a marketing gimmick to make even more profit on products? They are already advertising “NO TRANS FAT!” for many items that have already been on the market and are now advertised right on the bag as “new and improved!”
It’s like the Healthy Choice meals and other supposedly “healthy” prepared foods that are in fact no more healthy for people than regular. Yet, the green box and the world “healthy” makes people think they are getting something special improved just for them.
2 October 2006, on 3:33 pm
It should be banned here in Canada because we all pay the medical bills when the users get sick. No one fucks with my hard earned cash!
3 October 2006, on 4:47 am
Sounds like somebody else lives far enough north to have some common sense (Memetic). I sure wish that we had universal national health care here in the states. Even with private insurance the same applies regarding fucking with hard earned cash of some to support poor nutrition habits of others.
statduusy - What does OMFSM mean? forgive me, I’m not on the geek squad. The grease car thing really doesn’t have to be time consuming either, all my friend does is filter the grease. The idea that filtered waste grease would be sold for twice as much as gas is just about as loony as the idea that trans fat is being banned to make more profit selling products. I don’t think that there is an item on the shelf that misleadingly says “new and improved” next to “no trans fat”. I do think they are responding to the public being more educated about nutrition. I’d recommend just taking a short walk every day for starters. good luck and may the stardusy be with you.
3 October 2006, on 11:24 am
What does OMFSM mean?
Hey Sausage, Since you are not into the “geek scene” why do you want to know?
I worked in a marketing/advertising department for a number of years and know the tricks and schemes. They jump on that “no trans fats” thing like flies on poo…and run with it. People are thinking they are getting something healthy…ignoring the tons of sodium and other potentially harmful ingredients.
People are too trusting and naiive when it comes to marketing ploys. The almighty dollar comes before concern about people…marketing departments count on people being gullible. They are not merely responding to the public being more educated about nutrition. People will fall for all kinds of gimmicks and advertising. Read a Healthy Choice box someday in comparison to other frozen dinners…not much difference at all. Then look at the ingredients of a bag of chips that advertises no trans fats and read a regular bag of chips…not a whole lot of difference.
3 October 2006, on 2:42 pm
And they market the “healthy theme” right down to the color of the box. Psychologically, green is a “healthy” color…most foods marketed as “healthy” come in green boxes. Lean Cuisine and Weightwatchers come in white boxes because white psychologically says less of the good stuff, and then the more bright and colorful the packaging, the more fun and “yummy” bad stuff. This is not something I made up. It’s what they teach in advertising and graphic design classes.
4 October 2006, on 4:06 am
I’d recommend organic stuff, its usually very healthy and is produced in more environmentally friendly ways usually. It costs a lot more, but if you cut out your spending on stufff you dont really need, its worth it.
4 October 2006, on 8:17 am
I’d recommend organic stuff, its usually very healthy and is produced in more environmentally friendly ways usually. It costs a lot more, but if you cut out your spending on stufff you dont really need, its worth it.
True organic stuff is the best but it is not totally free of pesticides and chemicals.
Organic Produce - better for my health?
“Is organic produce free of pesticides and other chemicals?
Unfortunately the answer is no despite that most consumers perceive it to be pesticide-free. It is, however, true that organic produce has lower concentrations of pesticide residues. A recent study published in February 2006 showed that organic produce lowers exposure to pesticides in children. It is important to note that pesticide usage in farming is subject to strict regulations. Hence, even though the conventional produce contains higher levels of pesticide residues, it does not necessarily mean that they are dangerous to one’s health. Unfortunately, since no large-scale studies have investigated longer term effects of pesticides in the food chain, it is difficult to truly know if the safety limit set by the regulatory bodies is indeed sufficient enough to protect us.”
Another point: a person may *think* he is buying organic when he is not. My son, who is presently a semi-truck driver, drove for CR England a couple of years ago and they made deliveries to Whole Foods and other grocery warehouses. He picked up all the same kind of produce and delivered it to the various grocery warehouses. Since he shops for his organic produce at Whole Foods, he was very disappointed, and a bit pissed off. Either all lettuce that Whole Foods sells is organic, or Whole Foods is selling stuff as organic when it really isn’t. (Or they both take the same produce and divide it up and label it how they want…who really knows and who has time to pursue an investigation to find whether something is truly organic or not?) He is very cautious when purchasing organic produce. Anyone can slap an organic label on it…but there are different levels of organic and no one really knows if the organic stuff they are paying more for is actually much better.
Again, “organic” has also been a “weasel word” in advertising. It’s such a crooked world.
5 October 2006, on 5:17 am
The cropland on my mother’s farm is currently being rented to an “organic” farmer. I’ve seen that sometimes organic means more soil compaction due to mid season plowing between corn rows for weed abatement. sometimes it means solice for weeds that can then invade native prairie or forest. It would be great to see more organic farmers using no till. another thing that pisses me off is that its a dairy operation that is run ineficiently. I still think they’re better than the other farmers though. I’ve found that conventiional farmers are often conservatives who trophy hunt and could give a damn about any aspect of the environment other than alphala, soybeans, corn and timber. Our waterways are becoming so void of biodiversity…
“It is important to note that pesticide use is subject to strict regulations” - I doubt they’re all that enforcable… although, there would be a point of diminishing returns to the point that the farmer would choose not to waste his $$$ on excess pesticides. Or if his herd were harmed…
I do believe in supporting organic, its more assuring if you know the farmer or have a farmers market.
If you buy organic bread or cereal, etc. you’ll usually be steering free of trans fat, etc.