Will Arnold be a Big Nanny trans-fat terminator?
The busybodies in the California legislature have approved the first statewide ban on trans fats. Will Gov. Schwarzenegger actually sign this junk science meddle-gislation? Is this the kind of “rebranding” of the Republican Party Schwarzenegger wants the national GOP to adopt?
California is poised to become the first state in the nation to ban restaurants and other food facilities from using trans fats, which are known to increase the risk of heart disease, under a bill approved by the state Legislature Monday and sent to the governor.
The measure, passed with a bare majority, comes two weeks after a similar ban in New York City became fully effective. California doctor and consumer groups support the law, while restaurant groups have offered a lukewarm response. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not taken a position, a spokesman said.
Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia (Los Angeles County), who wrote AB97, said the measure is intended to promote the health of Californians.
“When it comes to heart disease and diabetes, communities of color are leading the way,” Mendoza said. “I figured that the use of trans fats in our restaurants is a leading contributor to that.”
Mendoza’s bill would require restaurants, hospitals and facilities with food-preparation areas to remove oils, shortenings and margarines with trans fats by Jan. 1, 2010, except for use in deep frying for dough and batter. Bakers would be given an extra year to figure out how to make goods free of partial hydrogenation.
By Jan. 1, 2011, food preparation sites would have to be eliminate all ingredients with trans fats or face fines from $25 to $1,000. The bill exempts public school cafeterias, which must be trans fat free under a law that takes effect at the start of the coming year.
Mendoza’s bill defines trans fat free as containing 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, and the law would not apply to packaged goods, which cross state lines and are subject to FDA regulation.
The bill also allows local governments to create trans fat ordinances, such as San Francisco’s voluntary plan under which restaurants that pass a $250 inspection will be awarded a decal indicating that they are trans fat free. The city’s law takes effect this month.
Related: SacBee columnist Dan Walters: “‘Nanny bill’ authors have no time for science, consequences”
I’m feeling like KFC today.
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Is this all they have to worry about ?
This is really beginning to remind me of the movie with Sylvester Stallone. I think it was “Judge Dredd”.
Watch out America, rights are being removed one nibble at a time!!!
Makes me want to eat a HUGE cheeseburger with extra fries, a pile of salt, a gallon of soda, and finish it off with a tub of ice cream.
These clowns shouldnt be allowed to mess with this. If people want to voluntarily do this, fine, but it shouldnt be mandated.
ooooooh the State Fair is coming to MN…. time to snarf down buckets of cheese curds, french fries and my fair favorite porkchops ….on a steek!
MN will be next , though… California doesn’t hold a candle to the morons in our state legislature.
One freedom at a time…
I’ll eat whatever I darn well please, thank you very much!
“VE HAVE VAYS OF MAKING YOU EAT RIGHT”.
One of the reasons I think america is great is the peoples right to do things they know are bad for them.
This smells of a dictatorship.
Not to be a party pooper, but hasn’t KFC already gone trans-fat free?
When they take my doughnuts from me, they’ll have to pry them from my cold, dead fingers!
I love the concept that obesity and heart disease come from the choices a restaurant offers and not from our own decisions on what to eat. I eat pretty well, but if I wanted to live on artery-clogging treats, shouldn’t that be my right? They act like restaurants have been cooking with arsenic.
You don’t want the grooms all pudgy when they marry each other do you?
I believe you are correct. They probably went on their own accord, which is how it should be, not forced by ridiculous laws.
It really sucks when my pets get into the trans fat leftovers.
This is somewhere in the middle of the slope that became slippery when they came for the smokers. It hasn’t reached the bottom yet—-no one said anything when they banned smoking in so many places.
Now we’ll hear some yelling.
My first, gut response: SHUT THE HELL UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!
Oh, and the racism of this is awful. Mendoza points out that heart disease and diabetes are more prevalent in “communities of color” and therefore we have to stop restaurants from using trans-fat.
That sounds to me like he is saying that the poor ignorant minorities don’t know any better and they have to be force fed the correct choices. Isn’t he saying that if no one babies the minority communities they will stupid themselves to death. (And yes, I did just make stupid a verb.)
Given how crazed most municipal building and housing inspectors are with their power, can anyone imagine how these guys would behave if they have the power to shut down restaurants for the crime of having transfat anywhere on the premises? The only way to enforce this law will be for the inspectors to be allowed to make unannounced onsite inspections of the rstaurants. That means, these crazed bureaucrats will just show up, turn a busy restaurant upside down and stop the preparation of meals during the busy hours of operation. You can expect the inspectors to be rude, insulting and far worse than your local cable guy. And let’s not even get into the issue of corruption. In my part of SOCAL, it is well known that inspectors often hit on women who want to pass their housing inspections or just want to get a building permit. Imagine what these inspectors will do when they get a chance to pull a powerplay on an attractive woman, perhaps an immigrant, who wants to pass her restaurant inspection? In addition, the hypocricy in the bill is that it excludes doughnut shops. If doughnut shops are exempt, the law will be meaningless. I am now on way to celebrate the new law by having fried spring rolls at my local Thai restaurant!
The hypocrisy baffles me. The same people who are pushing for control over what food we choose to eat are the same people that whine about our government being fascist…
I have but one question. Why the hell do they care what people shovel into their mouths?!
Man I wish I could take my vote back.
The USA has gone mad.
oh, and without a doubt the Gov. will sign it.
I live in California. I’m trying to remember why. We are broke, our freeways are a mess, the infrastructure of the state is a mess, we are paying gangbangers to keep peace in their territories, San Francisco is running a protection scheme on crack dealers and sending them down here to San Bernardino County, we can’t drill offshore, but we can’t enjoy the beaches and parks because of gang members and illegal aliens over-running them, crime is out of control but I can’t have an assault rifle to protect my business and home but some guy wants to worry about my diet, and not because he is worried about me, but because he worries that trans-fats are targeting people of color????????????
This racist piece of communist crap evidently considers himself forward thinking. Our assembly is a mental vacuum, somehow containing only left over 1960 freak ideology.
We lost California, but use our downfall to protect your own states. Try to save the rest of America, we are lost and will soon be back as a state of Mexico.
On July 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am, Fat Jolly Penguin said:
This would be one of the problems with a national health care system perhaps?
Food ‘they’ feel will promote ‘disease’ will be banned in order to save money.
tpero (#17), It’s only fascism if the government is forcing compliance with something you find disagreeable. If you agree with it, then it is enlightened progressive principles.
Lunch time here in VA. I’m off to Popeye’s (4 piece chicken, spicy, and biscuit with a large red beans & rice.)
I can’t wait until they wake up and realize that they need to ban homosexuality which is known to increase the risk of AIDS.
Good question Penguin??? Why do they care about what we put in our mouths but gives us the freedom to marry the same sex????
Madness!!!
I’m having a 4×4 animal-style with fries and a shake for lunch at In ‘n Out Burger. The idiots in Sacramento are in dire need of adult supervision (not to mention a set of priorities- like perhaps doing something about the black-hole socialist budget in this state).
I told you people: cigarettes.
would you listen? nooooooooooooooo
Yesterday I read an article extolling how self-breast exams don’t reduce cancer deaths – as if that is the point of the exercise. Self-breast exams were instituted so that women could have a fighting chance against the disease; to catch it early. Well, presumably, these people think not doing the self-breast exams WILL reduce cancer deaths. Methinks not.
Insurance companies are tired of shelling out money for mammograms and such for women whose lumps turn out to be benign. The best protection is early detection… at least it once was.
Here’s the article.
Why does the Seinfeld episode about “fat free” yogurt come to mind?
BINGO.
Funny, though, when people talk about things like abstience education or ending abortion the same people who have no problem forcing you to eat arugala and tofu freak out.
“How dare you tell me what to do with my body! Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!”, etc.
But “don’t eat that cheeseburger!”
Remember, people, healthy food is the new patriotism.
You want a good feeling of where this is going? A local lefty blogger recently commented on Obama’s plan to create a “civilian national security” force. Said blogger thought such a force was a good idea because:
Which translates to Obama establishing a “force concerned with ‘health,’ ’schooling,’ and ‘energy use.’ Another way to put it is that the “security force” will enforce the ObamaState’s requirements for ‘healthy living,’ ‘energy allocations,’ and ‘proper education.’
Facism – Coming to America 1/20/09.
I’ve been noticing my jeans shrinking. I think it’s our laundry detergent. My wife has another theory, but what does she know?!
I’ve been trying to eat better. But that’s by choice. Stay out of my refrigerator!
Seriously, is it any wonder America has the fattest people in the world? And yes, the UK isn’t far behind the big behinds.
EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL! RAR RAR RAR!
On July 17th, 2008 at 11:54 am, ajmontana said:
oh, and without a doubt the Gov. will sign it.
Then, he’ll light a cigar to celebrate making people healthier.
I actually agree. Americans, by and large, are lazy people. People dont spend enough time working out or doing something other than sitting on their rear and watching Dancing with the Stars and that kind of garbage.
Don’t get me wrong…i absolutely LOVE greasy, unhealthy, heart attack causing food. I’m a sucker for a Thickbuger from Hardees if there ever was one.
But i make sure to augment my sometimes unhealthy diet with exercise and by eating a bit more healthy otherwise. I work off what i eat when i’m a pig
IN the mean time, the Mexican Mafia is taking over chucks of California. Even popular resorts. How about you put that on your plate Arnold?
Sorry to all the Chucks, I meant ChuNks.
If we don’t teach people about health but just take away trans-fat, does that help people who are making poor food choices to begin with? They are acting as though trans-fat is the only health risk. Phew! We have finally gotten rid of trans-fat. Now people who choose to live on McDonald’s will be safe and healthy.
Calories in and calories out.
Telling liberals you can’t create a “perfect” society is definitely an exercise in futility, but golly they are going to try.
Gee – could it be because a large segment of our population buys into the entitlement mentality pushed by liberals since the 1960s? Why do for ourselves when the government will do it for us?
Until I have a right to set policy on abortion and sexual practices, the left better stay the hell out of my fridge.
How about we ban food all together, you know, kind of like North Korea. Then that way we can’t get fat.
So who else goes around banning specific foods? Yep, the leftist islamist alliance, its stronger than you thought it was.
I really hate these people.
Isn’t it nice how the local media tells you nothing until it’s almost a done deal.
Coming to a town near you, folks!
You are thinking of “Demolition Man” starring Sylvester Stallone and Westley Snipes. Great movie.
I particularly like Westley Snipes’ line about 2/3rds of the way through the movie. Speaking to subtly evil Dr. Cocteau, he says “I finally figured out who you remind me of. You’re like an Evil Mr. Rodgers!”
The movie was a tad corny, but it taught a great lesson about the evils of PC run rampant.
I particularly like Westley Snipes’ line about 2/3rds of the way through the movie. Speaking to subtly evil Dr. Cocteau, he says “I finally figured out who you remind me of. You’re like an Evil Mr. Rodgers!”
I liked the part where he was asking if there was still a waiting period as he was stealing guns from that museum.
Don’t you see? The idea is for the government to do the thinking for us! Why should we worry our little heads about such things as what to eat?
/sarc off
Democrats-lite ™ (c).
PLEEeeASE tell me that it DOES NOT include BUTTER!!!
OK – back to it…
Arnold was GIVEN to us by the GOP -
He IS the LAST L_O_T_E for whom I will vote.
Whats really sad is how they are wasting time on this, instead of the real problems Califonia has.
On July 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am, Fat Jolly Penguin said:
I have but one question. Why the hell do they care what people shovel into their mouths?!
Because, they think if you eliminate all of them there transfats and stuff, you could call yourself the THIN Jolly Penguin!
this is representative of what Reason mag has dubbed the “Grand New Party”, the Tax-Hike Mike supporters who are willing to spend tax dollars to enact social programs appealing to social conservatives. give me Coolidge, Robert Taft, or Barry Goldwater a thousand times over this RINO crap
I received a call from the Gov’s peeps last night asking for support to help him get a budget passed. I simply said “I’ll scratch his back if he scratches mine. He needs help with the budget and I need help getting rid of the gangs running the streets. So if Arnold would get tough on Illegal Invaders, we will both win. Money for Americans will not be wasted on the illegals and the budget will be fixed.
John,
Sounds like tough love to me. Good on you!
They want us to live long enough to…die from a sword attack at the hands of an illegal alien, perhaps?
Hands free cellphone laws, foie gras bans, cigarette taxes up the yazoo, threats of increased taxes on alcohol, lightbulb bans… is there any aspect of our lives that the state of California will not intrude into? Any free choice they will not attempt to limit?
Oh yeah, abortion.
Are bacon, ham, and pork chops included in the ban?How about mayonnaise? Next thing they attack will probably be cream and butter.
If I lived in California I’d sue the state for discriminating against skinny people. Seriously! I inherited a skinny body, and it’s a struggle for me to stay above ninety pounds. Without fats I’d shrink to nothing. LOL
Life was so pleasant before idiots decided to take care of us. (Sigh)
NANNYSTATE! NANNYSTATE!
Well if there was a problem with “second-hand” trans-fat (I know, I almost threw up typing that) this would be a different issue.
Just read that 1in4 californians are HS dropouts. And THE ARNOLD is worried about my freedom fries! Seems the change he seeks is somewhere where the moon don’t shine. Arnold & Bloomberg, RINOs to the ninth degree.
That is an excellent choice Ms. Malkin, as KFC has already stopped putting trans fat in their food.
FWIW, Wendy’s has already done it.
Priceless.
And I’m curious why you call it ” junk science meddle-gislation?”
“Numerous studies have found that trans fats raise our risk of heart disease,” said Mary Beth Sodus, a registered dietitian at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “They can also contribute to an increase in total cholesterol levels and a drop in the healthy HDL cholesterol. These man-made fats are much worse for you than any other natural fat, even the saturated fats found in butter and beef.”
http://www.umm.edu/features/transfats.htm
Not much he can do when the dems, MSM, ACLU and their ilk have pretty much neutered law enforcement in California by restricting what they can do and demonizing them when they actually do what they do. It is surprising LEOs are even stll allowed to carry weapons. To intimidate the law abiding peaceful citizen I suppose.
The only respect and support law enforcement gets from these people is when a LEO dies. Shed a tear for a moment and then get back to demonizing them again.
But trans-fat is not just harmful to arteries according to this article.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16695792/
I’m interested in the responses if this is cosidered “junk-science” too?
i heard rumor that ahnold undergoes regular dialysis because of all the steroids he took in his younger days….
So trans fats increase our risk of heart disease…so what? I know a lot of things that increase the risk of heart disease. Like smoking, it’s the new pc hysteria. Get people all worked up, so the left can “fix” it. When confronted, they insist its to decrease the expense of hospital visits. (Smacks of socialism). Slowly, they want to control every aspect of your lives, with the idea in mind that they are “helping us”. Why don’t you just mandate Lipitor or something, for everyone who has a high cholestrol? When a government starts mandating what people eat or don’t eat, you have major troubles. I know in NYC, all diabetics are required to have their blood sugar readings forwarded to the “health department”. Where’s HIPPA? We have an apathy in this country that will eventually overwhelm us. We will wake up one day, with a government-mandated “nutrisystem” type diet, with ration cards and all. Being in the medical field, I’ve seen a lot. Ever see a kid wrapped around a tree with his car, drunk? I have a few times. “Well, at least he wasn’t smoking. That could kill you.” The hypocracy is there. It isn’t pc enough. The next thing after trans fat, will be “red meat”. The food police will not be satisfied until all food is regulated.
Is this junk science dark knight, and should we have legislation to prevent such diseases in individuals?
Notice they don’t dare say it’s ‘gay men’. . . that wouldn’t be PC. . . so they are identified as Men Sex with Men – nothing to do with being gay. And the 5-7% number in America is the highest number I’ve ever seen. . . so this is definitely a ‘pro-gay’ piece.
Aw, man, AlohaGuy.
The second hand thingy is as bad as the ethanol hoax, or ‘no WMD were found in Iraq’!!
Well, the eco-nuts and human extinction folk want us to be infertile anyway, so why not let us enjoy our doughnuts in the process?
No, no englishqueen; they want us to be fertile all right; so that the abortions can continue!
#68 TA- re: your post:
I read MSM and thought -”What does HIV have to do w/the MSM (Main Stream Media)”
Then- I accessed your link!
Men having Sex w/Men MSM
MSM…or MSM!!!
I’m thinking Serendipity
# 2
Thank you-
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/msm/resources/factsheets/msm.htm
Jeez, why stop here! Instead of metal detectors at the exits to grocery stores, let’s post “food police” to search your grocery bags and confiscate anything that might be bad for you!
(/snark)
I think I can make my own smart food choices, thanks.
I’ll just make my own damn junk food – fat, salt, sugar, calories and all! And it tastes better too.
Morons.
On July 17, 2008 at 2:30 pm, DarkKnight said:
“The more trans fats a woman eats, the more likely she is to be infertile….”
Gee, I don’t know about that. Back in the distant past, before I was informed of the dangers posed by eating trans fats, I had six children in nine years. But that’s just me.
@ Thacker Agency
Do not thread-jack. I asked a question why Ms. Malkin considered the harmful effects on trans fat “junk science,” despite article after article that describe that harmful effects of trans fat. This thread is about trans-fat and the legislation concerning trans-fat. If you would like to discuss legislation ideas about other subjects, we can discuss that another time because it would be a interesting discussion. But I asked what I consider a legitimate question about the quote “junk science”… to which I have not received any answers.
Would you be interested in providing an answer?
@Little Ma
Be careful how to whom you attribute quotes… because I did not say that quote. Neither did I say whether or not I agreed with that statement. I do not consider myself an expert on trans-fat. It was the Harvard researcher who made that claim about infertility (as I thought I made clear using the “quote” function). I was asking if other people considered his quote “junk science” and if so, why. If you do, fine. But I’m just throwing that quote out there about this researcher who clearly found some major problems with trans fat.
Better get on the ball folks. I’m a smoker and still burned up (pun intended) by the taxes placed on a legal item and the restrictions of use. I swore then that when some other group started losing a freedom I wouldn’t lift a finger to help them. I still feel that way.
Since I can’t smoke in restaurants, I no longer go to them, so trans fat or no trans fat garbage means nothing to me.
But to see freedoms taken away one at a time is getting harder and harder to watch. IF you are tired of the nanny state, better stand up and fight it with all you’ve got. I know getting rid of smokers has made a lot of people happy, but you better watch out what you let them keep banning. The next ox they gore may be yours.
These assholes have not started the budget process in time for the last 20 years or so.
They are very quick to regulate people’s freedom and choices, though.
Gay sex is good (even if it spreads HIV), but transfat is bad (even if the diner does regular excercises).
DarkKnight: please read this, and comment.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,228537,00.html
“Consider the most recent review of trans fats research published in the New England Journal of Medicine (April 13, 2006). The review was co-authored by Harvard’s Walter Willett, one of the researchers leading the anti-trans fat campaign.
Willett’s primary claim about trans fats is that they “appear to increase the risk of coronary heart disease more than any other macronutrient.” Willett cites three large studies as “the strongest epidemiologic [real-world] evidence” for this assertion.
Let’s look closely at these studies.
In the so-called “Health Professional Follow-up Study,” more than 43,000 male health professionals were studied for six years to examine the association between dietary fats and heart disease. Although the “raw” results indicated positive correlations between trans fat consumption and heart disease, when other confounding risk factors for heart disease were considered, the correlation with heart disease became statistically insignificant and the correlation with fatal heart attacks became inverted – that is, trans fat consumption slightly reduced the risk of fatal heart attack!
In the “Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study,” the intake of trans fats was studied in almost 22,000 male smokers. The study did not report a statistically significant association between trans fat intake and non-fatal heart attack, and only reported a questionable weak statistical association between very high trans fat intake and fatal heart attacks.
But given that the typical lifestyle characteristics of smokers compared to non-smokers – lower income, more stressful lives, worse diet, higher alcohol consumption, and less exercise – tend to significantly impact heart disease risk, the men in this study are probably not good subjects for an evaluation of trans fats in the first place.
In the third study, known as the “Nurses Health Study,” 80,082 female nurses were followed for 14 years to study the relationship between dietary intake of different types of fats and heart disease. No overall association was reported between trans fat intake and heart disease, although a weak statistical association was reported for women in the top quintile of trans fat intake. But the size of that statistical association (53 percent), however, renders it quite dubious.
As the National Cancer Institute has publicly stated, “In epidemiologic research, [increases in risk of less than 100 percent] are considered small and usually difficult to interpret. Such increases may be due to chance, statistical bias or effects of confounding factors that are sometimes not evident.”
So there you have it. Those flimsy-to-exculpatory study results are what Harvard’s Willett considers (as of April 2006) to be the “strongest epidemiological evidence” supposedly linking trans fat consumption with heart disease.”
What say you, DarkKnight?? Is this on-point enough for you?
Unbelievable! Now the State is telling us what we can eat?!?!?!? The problem with Arnold is he comes from a socialist country so he doesn’t understand liberty and the dangers of government interference, which just makes him another liberal. Why do we allow immigration from socialist countries? They’re wrecking our country!