Wednesday, July 30, 2008

California trans-fat and fast food laws

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a law that bans trans-fat from all items served in restaurant. California restaurants must comply by 2010 and bakeries by 2011.

The Fast Food Maven has a great local breakdown of how the various fast food chains are coming along with their trans-fat reduction program.

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Once the mayor approves a ban sent to him by the Los Angeles city
council, no more fast food chain restaurants can be built in low-income areas
of Los Angeles. (more from the LA Times).

This might encourage local restaurant ventures, which would be great, but is it right to prevent companies from giving people what they want? The fast food chains wouldn't want to build there if the people didn't want their food. Maybe a city-wide nutrition education program would be a better idea. Is the day approaching when the government tells us what we can and cannot eat?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How long now until more states do this?

Anonymous said...

Is the day approaching? It has already arrived. Which is fine. I just wish the government-backed multi-nationals that make the normal stuff we have access to in mainstream stores, let alone fast food, offered healthier choices. If we could do this without government regulation I'm fine with it - but fast food is worse for us than beer or cigs. Maybe just tax the hell out of it and give the payments to medicaid when the people that eat this get sick and drain the taxpayers' coffers? As it is, fast food is basically subsidized by tax payers because of the long term health problems it causes.

Anonymous said...

Hi. Nice blog. I guess I can see both sides of this issue. I'm definitely not in favor of a nanny state, but my understanding of the science behind trans fats is that they are pretty much bad for you no matter the dosage. So, unlike say, alcohol, moderation is not really an issue. They're chemically induced fats that really mess with your system. So, maybe they should be banned--as its really about the industry that makes them, not the consumers. McDonald's can still make Big Macs, just not with stuff that is unequivocally harmful. Just my thoughts. Here is my blog if you are interested: www.humanrightsresearch.blogspot.com