Damek.

New York City has joined other cities and countries in regulating (via a ban) trans fats from restaurants.

Well, almost anyway. There’s a review period and a final vote in October. But it’s pretty much done. After an initial distaste over another government ban (which always seem heavy-handed), a cursory review of the information leads me to believe there’s nothing bad about this. There will be some short-term costs for restaurants as they change their recipes and cooking methods, but they really need to do this, and once the intial hurdles are jumped, it’ll be back to business as usual. It’s beyond the capabilities of most people, particularly those most affected by these sorts of foods (think KFC), to stay informed and monitor their diet for something like this.

Granted, it doesn’t have secondary health effects like cigarette smoke, but it’s not really like that. I think of it more as if we’ve just discovered some common food ingredient is actually a slow poison. There’s no reason for it to be there, and it hurts everyone who consumes it. So why not ban it? If only for a distaste of bans, then it’s the wrong reason to oppose it. I could see opposing it if it were something like regular animal fats which, when eaten to excess are unhealthy, but when eaten in moderation are not really a problem. I’m all for healthy people just eating real butter instead of alternatives. In that case it’s not the stuff but the behavior that’s the problem; banning the stuff would punish other people who are not abusing it and ruining their health.

But trans fat is the alternative. I quote Wikipedia:

Most trans fats consumed today, however, are industrially created through partial hydrogenation of plant oils and animal fats — a chemical process developed in the early 1900s and first commercialized as Crisco in 1909.

Unlike other fats, trans fats are neither required nor beneficial for health.

So, in my opinion, in this case, banning the stuff instead of worrying about the behavior is just fine. We can worry later about the larger behaviors of overeating and the economic realities that force people to eat KFC all the time. That’s a longer battle with many ramifications. This seems a simple measure which will protect people’s health — and lives.