Can the government get out of my vices?
First the NYC government wanted all restaurants (with only a few exceptions) to post the calorie count of all foods offered. I thought that was a great idea, because people can choose to use them to make informed decisions or they can ignore them and eat what they want. That’s the beauty of information. I actually found out that some of the lunches I was eating weren’t as bad as I thought.
Then the government decided that restaurants need to ban trans-fat. It was the new (I had never heard of it before) evil in our processed food. Apparently it’s what makes french fries taste so good. I don’t know about that – I’ve had homemade fries that tasted better than McDonald’s crap. Now while I’m all for keeping food as healthful as possible without sacrificing taste, I didn’t like that there is a ban on the substance without educating people as to why this is happening. All I heard was the news of the ban and the restaurant industry’s angry reaction to it. There was nothing else mentioned. That’s when trying to help someone turns into talking over their life. Information is key; unfortunately it’s less expensive to enact a ban than it is to get 8+ million people in NYC to eat better foods. And with that education, you need opportunities for lower income people to get fruits and vegetables at a good price, which costs money as well. Much cheaper to tell the industry, which in 2008 was already struggling, to spend money to change their recipes.
Recently I’ve seen subway ads touting the benefits of lower calorie foods and discouraging heavy drinking and double Whoppers. It’s a good start, but I have yet to read about any other type of education. What about those who drive in cars? They’ll never see those PSA’s.
So now, the government (the Health Department, to be exact,) is instituting guidelines for the amount of salt that should be in foods. Right now it’s voluntary, so it could be a good marketing ploy for those companies that implement the changes. However, I’m waiting for when these guidelines are going to be law and yet again, there will be a partial ban on a substance without letting the population know why this is being done and without giving people a chance to buy the really good stuff at a reasonable price.
And the government wonders why we’re still buying sugar-laden drinks and eating at McDonald’s. We think that “oh, there’s no trans-fat and lower salt. And it’s cheap! I must be eating right.”