Toodaloo Trans Fats
I have been eagerly waiting for Seattle to jump on the anti-trans-fat train ever since I heard of the ban enacted in New York last year and put into effect earlier this month.
All my dreams and wishes came true last night when the King County Board of Health voted to require all county restaurants to phase out trans fats and for chain restaurants to list nutritional information on their menu. It is a process that will start now and fold out in two phases. By April 1, 2008, all King County restaurants will be required to eliminate fry oils and shortenings with artificial trans fats, and chain restaurants will be required to list nutritional information on their menus. In the second phase, all restaurants must find alternatives for margarine and all other products containing trans fats–completely eliminating the nasty additive–by February 1, 2009. [PI]
Trans fats add fuel to an already rapidly burning United States obesity epidemic. Manufacturers create trans fats in a process called hydrogenation, which adds hydrogen to vegetable oil, decreases their production costs, and increases the shelf life and flavor of their products. The process was first commercialized by Crisco in 1911 and has recently become a focus of nutritional scrutiny across the nation–a lot of chips and snacks in the grocery store now boast that they’re “Trans Fat Free!” Trans fats are neither necessary nor beneficial for one’s health. They’ve been linked to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, liver dysfunction and obesity.
I’m glad to see Seattle linking arms with other progressive forces across the nation to increase the livelihood and health of our city. Bye bye cigarette smoke. Hello green living. See ya trans fats.
But bye-bye fresh biscuits. Bye-bye anything that works better with shortening than with butter. I mean, I have no problem with them banning trans fats in frying. But Southern biscuits are all about shortening.
Oh, and trans fats being linked to the obesity epidemic is silly. There’s nothing about trans fat that makes it any more or less fattening than saturated or unsaturated fat. Fat is fat. The problem with trans fats is that the studies are showing they are more likely to clog arteries and cause heart problems. Thus, margarine is suddenly less healthy than butter (a complete reversal from 25 or 30 years ago, when butter was teh eevl).
I appreciate what PHSKC is doing, but why can’t they just force the cafes and restaurants to tell me there’s trans fat in what I’m eating and not just do an outright ban? It’s like these guys have never baked a biscuit in their lives.
Perhaps the problem with fat America is that they can’t ever imagine living their life without a buttery biscuit.
The French have more buttery goodness than us Fat Americans… Might also want to look at the mammoth portion sizes, and the ‘processed’ sugars, and the.. and the…
I’m actually a bit surprised at where I fall on this, but I think a forced ban is a very bad idea.
That said, I’m all for eliminating trans fats. I personally try to avoid them when I eat, and when I cook. It’s very much like high fructose corn syrup. I try very hard to avoid that at all costs.
But… don’t legislate it. I’m thinking of Dick’s here. People don’t go to Dick’s for health food. There are very few people in Seattle who would ever consider Dick’s healthy. But then, it’s Dick’s. You go there when you want a cheap, greasy burger and fries or when you desperately need to help out a hangover. I know when I go there, that I’m making a choice to eat food that is really crappy for me.
A lot of restaurants are moving to avoid trans fats on their own. Even Ivar’s has said that they have eliminated it from their cooking oil everywhere except for Safeco Field. That’s great. I applaud their efforts. But when you’re trying to serve 40,000 people, they haven’t found a better alternative that actually lasts.
Now I’m very much in favor of nutritional information posting. And again, I’m in favor of no trans fats. I’m just not in favor of legislating it.
You’ve been “eagerly waiting” a new law to be enacted?
“All [your] dreams and wishes came true last night” when the health board passed another bureaucratic policy?
What kind of sick, government-loving, whack-job are you?
I support the ban, with reservations. Trans fat is basically poison. As such, I don’t think it should be allowed in our food. The only thing I worry about is food becoming more expensive than it already is. It seems there are always unintended consequences to stuff like this. Mostly, I worry that the poor will be even less able to afford food. Trans fat may be poison, but it’s cheap.
Perhaps the problem with fat America is that they can’t ever imagine living their life without a buttery biscuit.
Oh, we’re totally going for biscuits and gravy next meetup. And then you will understand.
I guess the kind of whack job that cares about my health.
Since you seem to be so “anti-government,” shouldn’t you also be “anti-large corporations getting rich by feeding us chemicals”?!
I’d like to LIVE FREE of trans fats rather than DIE of coronary heart disease.
Ryan,
I agree. It frustrates me that healthier options in America are almost always more expensive. It’s like we’re being punished.
Dylan,
We better do it before 2009.
Come on, DW. It’s not like they invented biscuits in the south in the 1910s. What’s needed is not butter but lard, which is what they used before Crisco started marketing their beef-tallow substitute, invented for soap and candle making, as food, because they’d made too much. Hydrogenated oils have never been food. (And no, lard is not less healthy than shortening.)
There’s a BIG difference between banning cigarette smoking or enforcing “green” environmental policies and banning trans-fats.
Cigarette smoking damages MY air.
Garbage and pollution affect MY environment.
How do trans-fats affect you?
How does someone eating a patty melt off a grill that’s been greased with margarine instead of butter affect ANYTHING in your life?
I’m reminded of a poem:
—
First they came for the donuts, and I didn’t speak up, because I don’t eat fried food.
Then they came for the foie gras, and I didn’t speak up, because I don’t like foie gras.
Then they came for the petit filet with hollandaise and buttery, garlic mashed potatoes, with a flourless chocalate cake topped with creme anglaise for dessert, and there was no one left to speak out.
I think I just equated the jewish people to foie gras…
Is foie kosher?
Frank: Um, so you care that cigarette smoke damages YOUR air, garbage and pollution affect YOUR environment, but not that trans fats affect YOUR health?!
And did you just equate standing up for fatty, fried foods to the Holocaust?!?
Jeanna, you’re not the kind of “whack-job that cares about [your] health.” I’d guess most MB readers care about their health to some degree.
No, you’re the kind of whack-job that cares about everybody else’s health as well. And you care so much that you think it might be a good idea to start telling people what they can and can’t do in the name of their own health. You support legislation that won’t make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, but that’s ok, because it helps you sleep better at night. Mission accomplished!
PS: For a so-called native, you sure don’t seem to have much sympathy for Dick’s, which will surely suffer from this legislation.
I’d like to LIVE FREE of trans fats rather than DIE of coronary heart disease.
Jeanna, I’m honestly curious, do you feel that there are many restaurants that you frequent that are “secretly” (or not so secretly) putting transfats into your foods, and that this policy will put an end to that?
I feel that I know when I am consuming most transfats (fake butter at the movie theater, fast food restaurant, greasy spoon diner, etc), and that I have a choice as to what I put into my body.
Do you feel that your personal consumption of transfats will be decreased by this measure?
Alcohol’s also a poison. Let’s ban that in King County, too.
For that matter, why bother banning things? Why not just let the county come up with an acceptable daily menu for each of us? Deviate from the healthy option and you’re exiled to Wenatchee.
I’m glad the county is making all my choices for me–no need to take any responsibility for my health whatsoever!
If it’s in a restaurant, I’m gonna eat it, because it must be healthy, or King County would’ve banned it!
It’s a Wendy’s Triple Stack for me, breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Thank you, King County!
Does anyone else see the disconnect between the “Hello green living” at the bottom of the page and the massive burger and fries at the top?
For our next step, we should ban the meat patty. Meat patties are often delivered by trucks. Trucks cause congestion and create harmful emissions. Ergo, ban meat patties.
Boy, this got shrill in a hurry.
Question, if all of you are so heated about this new ban, why weren’t you at the meeting last night, putting your own two cents in? Since apparently it voted voted yes after “six hours of discussion and comments from members of the public, most of whom supported the rules.”
Why wasn’t I there? Because it wouldn’t have made any fucking difference. You’ve got a small but motivated group of people for the ban and a highly sympathetic Board that thrives on making highly public (yet not very effective) decisions like this. I wasn’t at the meeting, but I think I can summarize:
- Supporters: “Trans fats are bad for your health. Also, New York has a ban.”
- Board: “Well, we don’t like things that are bad for you. Also, we’re consistently jealous of world-class cities like New York. Sold!”
Another reason I wasn’t there? I had to work. And exercise. And cook myself a meal. Shocking, I’m sure, but I was even able to use a small part of my brain to think about what I was eating. I thought about deep-frying a ho-ho, but decided to eat some vegetables instead. If you had been there, you would have witnessed a true miracle in which someone made a decision without input from the King County BoH.
“Alcohol’s a poison, let’s ban that too.”
This is why I don’t support this ban. Not because I think alcohol should be banned. On the contrary, our relatives went down that road and it certainly didn’t do them any significant benefit. And as I sit here drinking my bourbon, I would be very upset if someone tried to take it away from me. But because the serving of trans fat in a restaurant such as Dick’s, does not harm ME in any way unless I CHOOSE FOR IT TO DO SO.
Anyway, what I see here reading all of these comments is this: Jeanna cares about her health. I get that and I RESPECT that completely. But I also care about my health a great deal. Just becanse I don’t support a ban on trans fats does not mean I don’t care about my health. It means I often have to put a little effort into my food choices in order to avoid trans fats whenever possible. But once in a while… every once in a while, I choose Dick’s. Not because I want to die from heart disease, but because I like it. It tastes good. I should be free to do that. Just like I should be free to buy margarine (I don’t, but I should be free to do so). I should be free to make the choice to eat crappy food that will hurt me. I should also be given as much information as possible to let me know that what I’m eating has crappy stuff in it. But in the end, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHOOSE if I’m putting crap or healthy stuff in my body.
The alcohol analogy isn’t applicable at all. At least with alcohol there’s a choice to be made. With trans fat (in restaurants, at least) there isn’t.
Banning trans fat is not some harbinger of Communism. It’s a reaction to a pretty serious public health issue just like outlawing smoking indoors and requiring seat belts and bike helmets was.
The histrionic comments above are pretty entertaining, though.
I find it really entertaining that you people are supporting something that is not only TERRIBLE for you, but a completely unnecessary process created that only supports corporations’ needs to cut corners and save money. That is its SOLE purpose.
Yet, you’re calling me a whack job.
I care because I think it’s wrong that this process was ever created or used. I’m not trying to insult your personal ability to choose the right foods. But, I think there are plenty of people out there that don’t understand the repercussions, and it’s sad. Why should companies get rich at the expense of the consumers’ health?
Do you really think it’s that important to preserve trans fats in foods…they didn’t even exist at one time.
You act as if food isn’t going to be good anymore if we get rid of trans fats, but there is plenty of feedback that says people can’t even tell the difference in the restaurants’ products that have made the switch. Ezell’s eliminated it from their chicken; Starbucks has started eliminating it from their pastries, and people can’t even tell the difference.
Now, if it’s completely possible to get rid of trans fats and use products that don’t contain them, why in the HELL would you ever lobby to keep them?
Are you against the Pure Food and Drug Act too? Should we start putting all the chemicals back in our food?
DW-
Shortening has only recently had trans fats added, and you can now get zero-trans-fat vegetarian shortening. Any recipes that require trans fats aren’t classics in my book.
who’s forcing who to eat trans fats again?
When trans fat is outlawed, only outlaws will… err, nevermind.
Why stop at restaurants? Why not grocery stores, too?
The only regulation I support here is a regulation requiring the labeling of items made with trans fat.
If I bring in my own trans fat (from home) with me to the bistro, will I be allowed to consume it (after paying the appropriate corkage fee)?
“But, I think there are plenty of people out there that don’t understand the repercussions, and it’s sad.”
Ah, of course. Some people have trouble making decisions because they aren’t informed, so we’ll just make everyone’s decision for them. How enlightened. (Why not just a trans-fat label?)
“Why should companies get rich at the expense of the consumers’ health?”
Of course, the evil corporations. Like Dick’s. I mean, all they care about is making you sick and making an extra dollar…and paying their employees well…and offering scholarships. Also, news flash: companies pass on many costs to the customer, so it’s not just evil corporations that will see increased costs.
“Ezell’s eliminated it from their chicken; Starbucks has started eliminating it from their pastries, and people can’t even tell the difference.”
Sounds intriguing. Maybe there are other companies that will step up to the plate without being coerced into doing so.
What you fail to understand, Jeanna, is that no one is advocating in favor of trans fats, per se. People are angry that the BoH is coercing businesses into removing them; in essence, it’s telling us what we can and can’t eat. That’s a restriction of freedom and it’s patronizing.