Well, now all we have to do is sit back and wait for childhood obseity to end. No doubt, now that trans fats are banned, the kids should be in great shape by swim suit season.

Why don't our councilmembers start doing something productive, like cutting my outrageous property taxes.

I don't get the banning of trans fat. Is it for all of the stupid people who have been living under a rock that don't know it's bad?? Eat healthy, you will be healthy. Quite a simple concept really.

If this is supposed to end childhood obesity, then why just go after restaurants & delis?
Why not ban any packaged food with trans fats from crossing the state line into MD?

Gawd Rosebud, don't give them any ideas :-)

Awesome. Since the Mommy State banned Trans Fats, this means that French Fries are good for me now, right??

Since the government wants us to be healthy and live a long time, I think it is time for them to pass a law making us all work out from 5-6 pm everyday. Where ever you are you must start to work out. Apparently they havent thought of that yet, or they would have passed it. Anywho, it doesn't bother me that the law was passed, just that they think people are going to be healthier.

It happened to be in that other newspaper but there was a great editorial about trans fat.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1282925~Banning_trans_fats_kills.html
Very interesting take on the whole issue.

The Examiner editorial is interestingly stupid. Don't hydrogenate palm oil and voila you have palm oil. Oh wait, you had it all along. In my crazy world removing a step in the manufacturing process would tend to decrease the cost of a good. Biofuel? Really? Don't people use spent cooking oil anyway? The City Council will have "blood on their hands"? What a ridiculous piece of yellow jounalism.

Y'know, this just burns my toast! They can legislate smoking bans and trans fats bans and whatever-else bans, but it's not really worth spit. If the Baltimore City Council or Maryland State Legislature, or even U.S. Congress for that matter, think they can legislate citizens into good health, they're NUTS! Wouldn't it be lovely if they'd stop with piss-ant stuff like trans fats and do something that would REALLY affect people's lives? How bout if they lowered taxes or fixed health care...now wouldn't THAT be something? Feh...thanks for letting me rant.

Well, on the plus side it is always good to see Melvin Thompson, the VP of the Restaurant Association, fighting the good fight.

I may not have become a foodie were it not for Melvin. About 15 years ago I was interning on Capitol Hill for Wayne Gilchrest. Melvin was on his staff, and he and I became friends. While the other staff members were eating in the cafeteria, we would lunch at classic places like the Willard Room or what was then trendy spots like the Red Sage. As I think back, it was probably at the Willard where I first had foie gras, and it was at the Red Sage were I first saw an open kitchen.

It's always good to see our elected representatives wasting our time and tax dollars doing everything and anything under the sun that's completely useless.

Of course, "we're protecting the children" is how they'll frame it.

If we/they are truly interested in the health of the citizens, then how about a ban on commercial chicken? Eliminate the horrible conditions our broiler chickens (the ones you buy at the store to feed to your children) survive under and legislate true pastured chickens and a complete ban on corn-based feed, antibiotics and steroids - with an 8 month minimum lifespan before slaughter. The elimination of corn-based feed and steroids will make a significant impact on our battle with obesity and better health.

Of course, that kind of legislature is unlikely to happen because of Purdue's stranglehold on the Eastern Shore economy.

With so many ridiculous laws sprouting up, it might be time for a lot of "civil disobedience."

I asked this before, what is the problem with corn? And don't tell me about HFCS which is concocted in a lab like trans fats.

As for civil disobedience, why not carry around a bottle of partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil and put it on your food, Milo Minderbinder. Right, because it's disgusting and not available to the consumer.

Voodoo -
Are you being serious about the corn question? I figured you would probably know more than me about it.

In a nutshell, corn is the cornerstone (couldn't help it) of all that is wrong with out industrial agriculture system. It's widely grown and subsidized by the government to make it artificially cheap (which weighs down the farmers growing it) and because it's cheap, it's fed to just about every animal in the chain whether it's good for them or not - especially in the case of cattle, it's really bad.

There's really a lot to go into that I would be able to detail accurately or concisely enough. For an overview of the problems with corn, I suggest reading the first chapter of The Omnivore's Dilemma".

All of this corn bashing....how are we ever going get Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) to sponsor this blog?

I guess obesity is more prevalent than cancer (caused by radiation from cell phones).

I guess obesity is more prevalent than cancer (supposedly caused by radiation from cell phones).