The  Invasion  of  the  Food  Police

Introduction:

As if there wasn't already enough government intervention in the everyday decisions made by a "free" people, there is a new regulatory fad underway — an Orwellian attempt to get you to eat healthy food whether you like it or not.  Without the cooperation of the national news media, the Food Police would be just an annoying group of easily ignored troublemakers.  Unfortunately there are plenty of elected officials who love to embrace a "crisis" in an attempt to appear to be solving problems.  The Nutrition Crisis is the perfect bait for publicity-hungry politicians.  After all, who could be against good nutrition, especially for "America's Children"?

The national news media, rather than questioning anything they hear, have been fueling this debate by adding just enough hype and phony concern to keep people watching TV or reading the newspaper.  Their use of the term "Obesity Epidemic" implies that obesity is contagious.  But in many cases, obesity is the result of poor self-control, and the obese individual has only himself to blame.

Motorized wheelchairs don't help matters at all.  Most of the people riding around on electric scooters in the grocery store are the very people who need to be on their feet, burning off calories.  A vocational counselor told me recently of a report indicating that the average weight gain is 100 pounds in the first year that a person owns a motorized wheelchair.

Unfortunately there is much more to this issue than junk food.  It has to do with trial lawyers, intrusive government, personal responsibility and freedom.  This page is primarily about the busybodies, not the problem of obesity or the nutritional value of french fries.



Dependency Mindset Limits Health Care Choices.  In New York City, a federal judge has approved a city ordinance that would require chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus.  Proposed legislation in Mississippi would prohibit restaurants from serving people with a Body Mass Index greater than 30.  Intrusive tactics like these represent a growing trend in government over-reach, while the overwhelming reception of bureaucratic involvement reveals a sense of government reliance never before seen in the United States.

Force-Feeding Food Facts .  One government body after another has the idea that some people need more information, and it will be supplied or else.  The targets of this campaign are restaurants.  New York City has a new law commanding chain outlets to post the calorie count of every item on menus and menu boards.  The legislatures in New York and California are considering state laws to require even more extensive disclosures.

Mandatory calorie counts cross the line between informing and nagging.  The restaurant business is highly competitive.  If customers really were clamoring for conspicuous calorie counts, restaurants would provide them voluntarily.  A legal requirement is necessary not because consumers want impossible-to-ignore nutritional information but because, by and large, they don't.

Senior citizens offended by donut 'cops'.  For years, [Putnam] County Office for the Aging nutrition centers received widespread donations of day-old donuts, cakes, pies, breads, bagels and donuts from delis, supermarkets and donut shops throughout the tri-county area.  County nutritionists decided that the sugary treats were not in the best interests of the over-65 set, so the "war" now facing county lawmakers centers on senior citizens' determination to make that decision.

Nanny State 911:  In a world where foie gras is outlawed, only outlaws will munch on goose liver fatted by gavage.  In his new book Nanny State, Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi documents in appalling and encyclopedic detail exactly "how food fascists, teetotaling do-gooders, priggish moralists, and other boneheaded bureaucrats are turning America into a nation of children."

What if bad fat isn't so bad?  Suppose you were forced to live on a diet of red meat and whole milk.  A diet that, all told, was at least 60 percent fat -- about half of it saturated. ... Consider the curious case of the Masai, a nomadic tribe in Kenya and Tanzania.  In the 1960s, a Vanderbilt University scientist named George Mann, M.D., found that Masai men consumed this very diet (supplemented with blood from the cattle they herded).  Yet these nomads, who were also very lean, had some of the lowest levels of cholesterol ever measured and were virtually free of heart disease.

Half of overweight adults may be heart-healthy.  You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen.  And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy.  A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

Exiling the Happy Meal.  Despite its health-crazy reputation, parts of Los Angeles are plagued by obesity rates that rival any city in America.  Now, the city may join a growing roster of local governments aiming to put their residents on diets by cracking down on the fast-food industry.

Baseball Fans Get a Never-Ending Ballpark Buffet.  Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks.  And some more.  And more.  A growing trend in all-you-can-eat seating at sports venues is making baseball's summer chorus sound more like "Take Me Out to the Buffet."  Dozens of arenas, stadiums and tracks have offered tickets that come with unlimited snacks.  The seats have been a hit with fans, a moneymaker for the venues and a worry for obesity-conscious health officials.

New Jersey Lawmakers Consider Tax On Fast Food.  The sputtering economy has caused an increase in prices of many staples including gasoline, rice, ice cream, even beer.  Now some lawmakers in New Jersey are considering taking food taxes a step further and install a proverbial "sin" tax on fast food.  Yes, the idea of marking up your favorite fast food burger or pack of fries is actually being tossed around, and it's not settling well with many residents.

Put down that Whopper before the government has to intervene again.  It was official as of Sunday.  New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg has banned trans fats because they're bad for us.  Also as of Sunday, New York City now requires restaurants to post the calorie content on their menus next to each food item in type as large as the price.  According to the Associated Press, McDonald's and Burger King are not complying.  Instead, they're suing New York City to protect their First Amendment rights and to keep their menu boards uncluttered.

Well-Intentioned Food Police May Create Havoc With Children's Diets.  Earlier this year, our small Midwestern school district joined the food wars, proposing a new policy that would discourage all food in classrooms, ban nuts and sugary foods and do away with vending machines.  So much for peanut butter sandwiches, snacks for kindergartners and birthday cupcakes.

Striking Back at the Food Police:  A prominent Washington lobbyist, [Rick] Berman runs the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit advocacy group that is financed by the food and restaurant industries.  Two months ago, after a report in a leading medical journal cast doubt on several assumptions about obesity, he pounced.  His group ran $600,000 worth of full-page ads in a half-dozen newspapers, gloating that the study showed that obesity was not an "epidemic" but rather a lot of hype.

Suspension Over Sweets.  What does it take for a school to suspend an eighth-grader, bar his attendance from an honors dinner, and strip him of his post as class Vice President?  If you guessed drugs, alcohol, or a firearm, think again.  A bag of candy is reason enough.  This week, a Connecticut school levied these very punishments on an honor student with no history of misconduct, just for buying a bag of Skittles from his classmate.

"Food Police" Slams Chinese Food.  Column A, the foods that are bad for you.  Column B, foods that are good for you.  The typical Chinese restaurant menu has much more A than B, a consumer group sometimes called "the Food Police" has found.

Cupcake Crackdown:  Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?  With childhood obesity rates skyrocketing, the New York Times reports that "school districts across the country have been taking steps to make food in schools healthier because of new federal guidelines and awareness that a growing number of children are overweight."  A few school districts have actually banned cupcakes at school birthday celebrations, which has some parents up in arms, because, to many, "the cupcake holds strong as a symbol of childhood innocence and parental love."

Food Police's Latest Victim:  Soda Industry.  First the media tell you not to drink bottled water because it contributes to global warming.  Then they warned against finding any humor in beer ads.  They've even made overtures about the evils of energy drinks.  Now media fear-mongering has spilled on to soda.  "[A] report tonight said that [consumption of soda] may be bad for our hearts," said CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric.

The Food Police:  It has become common to speak of an "epidemic of obesity."  News sources routinely feature articles on obesity, and some even suggest that the obesity epidemic is one of the greatest public health threats of our times, perhaps rivaling AIDS or avian flu.  Obesity is commonly linked to other social problems as well.  It has been named as a cost to businesses in terms of worker productivity, a cause for poor pupil performance, a weight-load problem for airlines, and a security threat in terms of military preparedness.  Proposed and implemented social solutions have included snack taxes, corporate-sponsored exercise breaks, stronger food labeling laws, and state-mandated student weigh-ins at public schools.

In England...
Obesity 'equal to terror threat'.  Professor Hunter said that governments since the 1970s, including the present Labour government, had "tinkered around the edges" of the rising problem of obesity. … He said that bigger warning labels, changes in the taxation of "unhealthy" foods, and even the use of compulsory regulations to force manufacturers to cut levels of salt, sugar and fat in their foods could be employed.

FDA Is Urged To Toughen Rules on Salt.  A consumer group prodded the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to regulate salt as a food additive, arguing that excessive salt consumption by Americans may be responsible for more than 100,000 deaths a year.  The government has long placed salt in a "generally recognized as safe" or GRAS category, which grandfathers in a huge list of familiar food ingredients.  But in an FDA hearing yesterday [11/29/2007], the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) urged the agency to enforce tougher regulations for sodium.

I Hate The Food Police And You Should Too.  These days you can't go anywhere without someone or something telling you what you should or shouldn't eat, or how much or when you should eat, or how your food should be prepared.  I'm really sick of it all.  Menus everywhere — from fast food restaurants to upscale joints — are lousy with healthy choice options.  We're told that our foods are cooked with canola oil, that we can substitute Egg Beaters for the real thing and that we can order brown rice instead of white.  Don't worry about some nefarious governmental agency butting into our lives; be perturbed by "The Food Police."

The "food police" and the pseudoscience of self-denial.  [Michael] Jacobson's list of soda hazards nicely illustrates the hyperbolic approach to health advice favored by CSPI, which the microbiologist turned food activist co-founded in 1971 after working for Ralph Nader.  Today the D.C.-based CSPI is one of the country's most influential nanny groups, with an annual budget of $15 million and some 800,000 newsletter subscribers.  It has the ability to grab headlines, kill sales of products it doesn't like, and shape regulatory policy.  The group is also emblematic of a troubling cultural trend whose motto might be, "If it feels good, don't do it."

NYC Revives Vote for Calories on Menus.  Hoping the fat-filled truth about certain fast-food items will shock New Yorkers into eating healthier, city officials are reviving a plan to force chains to post calorie counts for their foods right on the menu.

Food Makers Pressured to Cut Sodium.  Now public health specialists are pressuring the Food and Drug Administration to require food makers to cut the sodium.  In a hearing set for next week, they will call the government intervention crucial to fighting heart disease.

Kellogg's:  A Sad Cereal Sellout.  The famed Battle Creek, Mich., cereal maker (which started out almost a century ago as a health-food company), is now pleading guilty in the court of public opinion to charges that it's partly responsible for our childhood-obesity epidemic and other nutrition-related woes.

Burger King Responds to Trans-Fat Suit.  Burger King, the world's second-largest hamburger chain, said in January it had begun in-restaurant testing with several trans fat-free cooking oils.  At the time, the company said it was on track to begin a national rollout of trans fat-free cooking oils by late 2008.  Based on that, the Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Burger King on Wednesday [5/16/2007], claiming the company was moving too slowly and had failed to set a definite timetable for removal of trans fats.

New FDA Report Threatens Consumer Choices.  Today [6/2/2006] a new report commissioned by the Food and Drug Administration will recommend that U.S. restaurants reduce portion sizes, serve high calorie foods with lighter sides, advertise healthier foods, and provide greater access to nutritional information.  On its way to restricting consumer choices, the report inappropriately singles out the restaurant industry as a leading cause of obesity, ignores the impact of Americans' shrinking exercise habits, and dismisses the role of personal responsibility in dietary choices.

This is just another angle of The Government's Role as Your Overprotective Nanny.

Government Anti-Obesity Efforts Achieve Little Success.  States are increasingly using obesity as an excuse to feed at the taxpayer trough. … Like other politicized public health initiatives, last year's obesity legislation adopted a "for your own good" mantra set on protecting people from themselves.

I'm Fat.  You're Fat.  And Your Kids Are, Too.  Blaming the Big Corporations that are simply providing what you want and demanding that government ban various elements of the food supply won't reduce your waist size, but it will increase your loss of personal freedom and choice.

Sorry, Cupcake, You're Not Welcome in Class.  The days of the birthday cupcake — smothered in a slurry of sticky frosting and with a dash of rainbow sprinkles — may be numbered in schoolhouses across the nation.  Fears of childhood obesity have led schools to discourage and sometimes even ban what were once de rigueur grammar-school treats.

McDonald's Didn't Make Them Fat.  I have a question for federal Judge Robert Sweet:  If your own children blamed McDonald's for making them fat, would you buy it?  I don't think so.  Yet the judge has given the green light to a lawsuit against McDonald's by two teenaged girls who claim the popular fast-food chain tricked them into eating food that made them fat and sick.  At first it looked as if this lawsuit was going to be pushed down the garbage disposal, but now it's back.

The Futile Crusades of Dem Quixote:  [Scroll down]  "Some people will say, 'Well, people just don't have to eat it,'" she told the Washington Post.  "But the fact of the matter is, what if you have no other choices?"  Marqueece Harris-Dawson, executive director of Community Coalition, based in South-Central, said, "You try to get a salad within 20 minutes of our location; it's virtually impossible."  But, um, McDonald's serves salads.  In fact, the AP photo that accompanied the Post story on Perry's crusade featured a South Central McDonald's.  The largest single object in the photo was not the golden arches, but the sign advertising McDonald's "new fruit & walnut salad."

KFC owner sticks by its cooking oil.  A leading fast-food company has refused to bow to the [Australian] Federal Government's demand it remove harmful fats from its products.  The Assistant Health Minister, Chris Pyne, hosted a meeting of industry leaders in Sydney yesterday [3/12/2007] but failed to secure unanimous support from fast-food groups for healthier cooking.

Revealed:  Secret tricks to sell junk food to children.  Some of Britain's biggest food brands, including McDonald's, Nestlé and Kellogg's, are using "underhand tactics" on the internet to directly target children with their unhealthy products, according to a report.  Stung by moves to restrict traditional methods of selling junk food to children, such as TV advertising, the consumer group Which? says companies are often turning to the less heavily policed internet.

[If a 4-year-old kid has $20 in his pocket and wants to drive over to McDonald's to buy dinner for the family, more power to him. But in reality, adults decide where to eat, adults spend the money, and adults have control over the diets of their children, no matter what the kids have seen on TV.]

Proposed Trans Fat Ban Irks Chicago Restaurants.  "Our concern is that these laws should not be forced upon restaurants," explained Illinois Restaurant Association President Colleen McShane.  "Forcing them to immediately change their menu items or recipes can and will have a negative impact.  We support a voluntary effort to reduce trans fats from menus, not a government mandate."

Media's Warning This Memorial Day:  Step Away from the Grill.  Journalists constantly attack the foods Americans eat and the companies that make them … Reporters hype food dangers, complaining about the obesity "epidemic" and bringing on "consumer" experts who try to scare viewers from eating just about everything.  They also rarely include any comments from the very companies or industries they attack.

Trans Fat Ban:  In the wake of New York City's ban on restaurant use of trans fat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the ban is "not going to take away anybody's ability to go out and have the kind of food they want, in the quantities they want. … We are just trying to make food safer."  That, my friends, is tyrannical double-talk.

NYC Mulls Ban on Trans Fats in Eateries.  Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.

Fat chance for the new prohibitionism?  What if restaurants throughout this country were too scared of a lawsuit to sell foods deemed fattening?  It's not a far-fetched possibility, at least if a misguided gaggle of lawyers, legislators and researchers get their way. … Dozens of states either have introduced or passed legislation aimed at curbing obesity.  Measures include restricting advertising to children; requiring schools to provide parents with information about student body mass index; requiring schools to provide diabetes screening; mandating insurance coverage for obesity prevention and treatment; and establishing nutrition education programs.

City of Portland looks at trans fat ban.  New York is doing it.  Now, so is Starbucks.  Now Portland could be next to ban trans fats in restaurants.  According to City Commissioner Randy Leonard, Portland is looking very seriously at banning trans fats this year.

Burger Baloney.  Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, looking into whether beef consumption could be linked to increased risk of colon cancer, published a study in January [2005] with apparently alarming conclusions.  Closer examination, however, revealed more creative slicing and dicing of data by a few researchers at the NCI who seem to have a history of publishing anti-meat research.

Disney to serve healthier food at parks.  The Walt Disney Co. will begin serving more nutritionally balanced meals at its domestic theme parks and will sign movie and other endorsement deals only with restaurants that limit fat and sugar in menu items, the company said Monday [10/16/06].

A Sweetener With a Bad Rap.  Many scientists say that there is little data to back up the demonization of high-fructose corn syrup, and that links between the crystalline goop and obesity are based upon misperceptions and unproved theories, or are simply coincidental.

When Bad News is Good News:  The Spinach Story.  While death and disease of any sort is tragic, the fact that a foodborne illness has received so much attention at all is one indicator of just how safe our food supply generally is.  Despite the perpetual calls for additional federal oversight … Americans already enjoy the safest food supply in human history — and it's getting safer every day.

Shutting Down Debate.  Eric Schlosser, the anti-fast food crusader who wrote Fast Food Nation, has a new "children's book" out on the same subject, titled Chew on This.  I put "children's book" in quotation marks because while this book has pictures and simplifies complicated issues, it delivers a mostly grown-up message about how evil big corporations exploit farmers, hide the harmful health effects of their products, pay their employees too little, put profits before people … well, you know the litany.

The Fast Food Police Gang Can't Shoot Straight.  In 1988, the Center for Science in the Public Interest demanded McDonald's cease using beef tallow to cook its French fries and instead substitute partially hydrogenated cooking oils that contain trans fat.  CSPI contended partially hydrogenated oils are relatively innocent compared to beef tallow.  CSPI's Web site still claims this as one of its food police victories … but it turns out they were wrong.  On the same Web site, CSPI now simultaneously touts a class-action lawsuit it has filed against KFC demanding it stop using oil containing trans fat, which it alleges kills 50,000 Americans a year.

Bill Clinton Cuts a Deal to Make School Snacks Healthier.  Snacks sold in schools will have to cut the fat, sugar and salt under the latest crackdown on junk food won by former President Clinton.  Just five months after a similar agreement targeting the sale of sodas in schools, Clinton and the American Heart Association announced a deal Friday [10/06/2006] with several major food companies to make school snacks healthier — the latest assault on the nation's childhood obesity epidemic.

[Has Bill Clinton ever been a role model for good nutrition, or anything else?]

The nanny party thinks parents are incompetent to raise children.  I'm not knocking Dr. [Susan] Lynch's advocacy in support of healthy lifestyles.  No one is in favor of childhood obesity.  It's just not the government's job, or the job of government-run schools, to keep kids from drinking soda or eating chips.

Animal Rights Group Attacks Katrina-Torn Mississippi Schools.  The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom has called on the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a Washington-based animal rights group, to withdraw a callous school-nutrition "report card" it issued to public schools in Hancock County, Mississippi.  PCRM gave Hancock County a grade of "D," based largely on its complaint that the six-school district serves children meat entrees including "the BBQ pulled-pork burger and the chicken patty sandwich."

Deep fried panic:  The people at the Center for Science in the Public Interest could give meddlesome busybodies a bad name.  In fact, that almost seems to be the point of their latest lawsuit, which targets KFC's use of cooking oil with trans fat.  CSPI thinks that if companies and customers don't shun this type of fat, the courts should step in and force them to.

The Fried Logic of the Food Police:  What are we to make of Arthur Hoyte, a retired physician from Rockville, Maryland, who is suing KFC because he thought fried chicken was a health food?  In a lawsuit sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Hoyte claims he had no idea the restaurant chain fries its food in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. … Aren't doctors supposed to be smart, at least when it comes to health-related issues?

Doctors call for 'fat tax' on Coca-Cola and Pepsi.  Delegates at the powerful American Medical Association's annual conference will demand a levy on the sweeteners put in sugary drinks to pay for a massive public health education campaign.  They will also call for the amount of salt added to burgers and processed foods to be halved.

Menu madness:  According to a June 2 Associated Press report, "Those heaping portions at restaurants  — and doggie bags for the leftovers  — may be a thing of the past, if health officials get their way." … The story pertains to a report, funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration … Among the report's recommendations for restaurants are:  list calorie-content on menus, serve smaller portions and add more fruits and vegetables and nuts.  Both the Health and Human Services Department and the FDA accept the report's findings.

AMA wants to tax your soda pop.  Are you ready for a "fat tax" on your soda, America?  Do you want to pay extra for your Coca-Cola or Pepsi to fund a national anti-obesity program?  If some members of the American Medical Association have their way, there could be such a tax.  And while they're at it, AMA members also want to cut by half the salt used in fast food, processed foods and restaurant meals.

Ten Dumbest Food Cop Ideas:  Over the years, the growing cabal of diet dictators have proposed a litany of crazy proposals to tax, legislate, and litigate away many food and beverage choices.  This article lists ten of their dumbest ideas.

Food and Drink Police:  Center for Science in the Public Interest wants government to control our eating habits.

An Epidemic of Obesity Myths:  Overblown rhetoric about the "obesity epidemic" has itself reached epidemic proportions.  Trial lawyers increasingly see dollar signs where the rest of us see dinner.  Activists and bureaucrats are proposing radical "solutions" like zoning restrictions on restaurants and convenience stores, as well as extra taxes and warning labels on certain foods.

If fat is an illness, can ugly be far behind?  If obesity, in government-speak, no longer is "not an illness," one can assume it is an illness, and, if it is an illness, it must be covered by Medicare.  The change means that Medicare and Medicaid participants may begin asking for reimbursement for treating excess weight and these requests will be considered.  The implication is HUGE!

Examination of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  CSPI is the undisputed leader among America's "food police."  CSPI was founded in 1971 by current executive director Michael Jacobson, and two lawyers from Ralph Nader's Center for the Study of Responsive Law.  Since then, CSPI's joyless eating club has issued hundreds of high-profile — and highly questionable — reports condemning soft drinks, fat substitutes, irradiated meat, biotech food crops, French fries, and just about anything that tastes good.

Busybodies or tyrants?  Some call the people behind the Washington-D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) busybodies, but I call them wannabe tyrants.

Dora the exploiter?  All the talk of injuries and damages is a charade.  As obesity litigation advocate Richard Daynard notes in this month's American Journal of Preventive Medicine, one advantage of suing food companies under state consumer protection statutes is that it "avoids complicated causation issues."

Super-Sized Statistics.  Using words like "epidemic," policy makers [have] rushed to debate on everything from "fat taxes" on junk food to the regulation of fast-food advertising, from Medicare covering obesity-related surgeries to banning sodas from schools.

You bet I want fries with that.  I don't usually follow nutrition stories, but it was hard to miss last week's shocker about low-fat diets.  Like many papers, The Boston Globe put it on Page 1, high above the fold:  "Study finds no major benefits of low-fat diet."

Illinois Set to Ban Soda and Snacks in Schools.  The Illinois State Board of Education, following the urging of Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), on December 15 began the process of banning the sale of high-fat, high-calorie foods and drinks to most of the state's elementary and middle school students. … While the proposed regulations have been developed in consultation with the American Heart Association, experts note there is no consensus on what junk food actually is.

Fast food justice isn't good justice.  Some lawyers say fast food is dangerous.  It can make you fat.  I say some lawyers are dangerous.  They can make you poor and take away your choices.  But special privileges for favored industries, such as the bill the House recently passed to protect the fast-food industry, are the wrong cure. … People aren't endlessly stupid, so companies serving nearly 100 million people every day must be serving their customers well.

Some Rare Good News on the Obesity Front.  So much of what passes for obesity science has a large element of junk science in it, whether it's about the supposedly 400,000 Americans who die from being overweight each year (false) or the claim that consumers of French fries are likely to get cancer from acrylamide (false).

Supersized nanny state:  America has become the country of the warning label.  California is the warning-label state. … Whatever I do, it must be wrong, because there's always a sign telling me that what I'm eating, drinking or buying is bad for me.  If all of these things are so hazardous, why am I alive?

Chicagoans Force-Fed Animal Rights Nonsense.  Ducking the opportunity to stand up to animal-rights extremists, the Chicago City Council voted on Wednesday [4/26/2006] to outlaw the sale of the delicacy foie gras.

The Editor says...
Call me a bumpkin if you will, but I had never heard of it.  Apparently it's some kind of dish made from goose liver.

Daley has a beef with calorie counts.  Mayor Daley had a field day ridiculing aldermen for banning foie gras and suggesting Chicago restaurants sharply restrict artery-clogging trans fats.  Now the mayor has a new target:  mandatory calorie counts.  One week after Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) proposed the idea, Daley shot it down with a sarcastic vengeance.  He argued that restaurant patrons can count their own calories and make their own food choices.  He insisted that restaurants already forced to endure back-to-back bans on smoking and foie gras should be left alone by a City Council with better things to do.

I want my foie gras!  Outspoken foodies Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman sound off about New Jersey's plan to ban the duck delicacy — and how the food police are ruining America.

Update:
Chicago overturns ban on foie gras in restaurants.  Dining on foie gras — a delicacy made of duck and goose liver — will soon be legal again in Chicago.  The City Council on Wednesday [5/14/2008] repealed its two-year-old ban on the gourmet dish, drawing dissent from animal rights activists who consider foie gras cruel because the birds are force-fed to make their livers bigger.

Chicago Overturns Foie Gras Ban.  Chicagoans can feast on foie gras once more.  The Chicago City Council just repealed the ban on its sale that it put in place two years ago.  Monica Davey, the TimesŐs Chicago bureau chief, says the ban has been a source of embarrassment for the city and the repeal comes as residents have accused officials of trying to micromanage peopleŐs lives, with talk of prohibiting smoking even outside along the lakefront and eliminating transfats from restaurants.

Top Ten Junk Science Stories of the Past Decade:  Swedish scientists alarmed us in April 2002 that cooking high-carbohydrate foods — like potatoes and bread — formed acrylamide, a substance linked with cancer in lab animals.  But even if lab animals were reasonable predictors of cancer risk in humans — a notion yet to be validated — someone of average bodyweight would have to eat 35,000 potato chips (about 62.5 pounds) per day for life to get an equivalent dose of acrylamide as the lab animals.

Half-baked science:  When I was a kid, my mother thought spinach was the healthiest food in the world because it contained so much iron. … It turns out that spinach is an OK source of iron but no better than pizza, pistachio nuts or dried peaches.  The spinach-iron myth grew out of a simple mathematical miscalculation:  A researcher accidentally moved a decimal point one space, so he thought spinach had 10 times more iron than it did.  The press reported it, and I had to eat spinach.

Artificial sweetener cleared of cancer link.  A huge federal study in people — not rats — takes the fizz out of arguments that the diet soda sweetener aspartame might raise the risk of cancer.

A review of "Chew on This:  Everything you Don't Want to Know about fast food"
Authors Provide Heaping Portion of Misinformation About Food.  This book is a must-read for all those who really care about our food supply, really care about our nation's economic system, and wish to see how a book can attempt to destroy them both.  It is very well written and often extremely interesting … while at the same time being a near total distortion of the truth.  It is intended to create an anti-capitalist mindset among America's youth while leading them to accept reduced individual freedom leading to a socialist political and economic system.

Fat feedback … and fantasies.  Obesity hysteria recently collapsed under its own weight.  But the public health establishment, media and politicians are doing their best to revive it.

Critics Can't Stomach Detroit Mayor's Fast-Food Tax Proposal.  Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has proposed a 2 percent tax on fast-food purchases, alarming critics who say it would fall mainly on low- and middle-income persons and would slow economic development.

Bureaucracy and Obesity:  The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has recently taken some hits for how it spends around $7 billion of federal taxpayer money, lacks a clearly defined mission.  In fact, it has too many missions and is still looking for more.

Fat check:  Every time a new obesity study comes out, pundits latch onto it as proof that the government either should or should not take an interest in what Americans eat and how much they exercise.

Obesity Epidemic's Heavy Costs:  How times change!  Wasn't it just in April that the media and food and beverage lobby ran riot over a single study claiming that being overweight is actually good for you?

The Agency That Cried "Epidemic":  An article in this week's issue of Science magazine, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, describes the controversy over the CDC's exaggerated estimate that 400,000 Americans die each year because of excess weight.  A more recent study from researchers at the CDC, led by Dr. Katherine Flegal, indicates the number is much, much lower.

CDC's Credibility is Shot.  When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that obesity killed 400,000 Americans annually, the media and pharmaceutical industry pounced. … A study released [mid-April 2005] reported that the actual number of overweight- and obesity-related deaths was closer to 26,000 — one-fifteenth the original estimate.

Just how fat are we?  In March 2004, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said 400,000 Americans die each year due to obesity-related problems. … [But now] the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics says, no, the real figure is 111,909.  And after you deduct the beneficial effects of being moderately overweight, the figure declines to 25,814!

A role model he is not.  Bill Clinton is going to stand up to Ronald McDonald.  And he will be doing it for your children.  The shapeless blob of an initiative also will focus on schools and community groups to increase physical activity. … And Clinton will make sure all children eat their broccoli before he moves on to his next role — America's marriage counselor.

Food Cop Fines Schools For Selling Fries.  Texas Agricultural Commissioner and self-described "Food Czarina" Susan Combs is robbing Peter and pummeling Paul. … The Carlisle School was fined more than $1,000 for selling Crystal Lite (which has only 5 calories per 8 oz. serving).  The Calallen Middle School received a fine of $666 because the bags of Chili Cheese Fritos were too big.  The Bartlett Elementary school was fined more than $2,400 for, among other things, selling fried potato products twice in a week.

Black-Market Bubble Gum.  Draconian food-cop policies almost always have unintended consequences.  Such is the case in Austin, Texas, where one high school's ban on snack foods has created a thriving black market for candy bars and other sweets.

The "serving size" myth.  Most people would eat one blueberry muffin for breakfast.  When the label tells you there are just 215 calories per serving, you'd think it was a reasonably low-cal breakfast.  But the label in tiny print on one muffin ABC News bought also said the serving size was one-third of a muffin.

Health hype:  The idea that sugar causes hyperactivity is a myth. … In one study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, some kids ate sugared foods while others got foods with artificial sweeteners.  Their parents and the researchers didn't know who was eating sugar and who wasn't.

The productive vs. the unproductive:  If we developed the practice of removing products from the market because some people are harmed by them, we might starve to death.

The Flawed Fast Food Tax:  As politicians look for new ways to prop up their sagging budgets, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is the latest political figure to float the idea of a "fast food tax."  If his effort is successful, Detroit would become the first city in the nation to pass an extra tax on quickservice food.

CSPI Scam dot com:  The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is not as nice, sweet, and unbiased as its name might imply. The group routinely uses scare tactics justified by "junk science" and media theatrics as part of their ceaseless campaign for government regulation of your personal food choices.

Don't Get Tricked When You Hand Out Treats.  Insist on the Obesity Liability Waiver … because no one wants a lawsuit with their candy.

Let Cookie Monster be Cookie Monster.  After three decades, the well-meaning social engineers of PBS have announced he's not a Cookie Monster at all.  In the interests of teaching kids not to be gluttons, CTW has transformed Cookie Monster into just another monster who happens to like cookies.

Another war … on obesity.  Writes Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine, Kelly Brownell, "a Twinkie tax advocate who never tires of comparing Ronald McDonald to Joe Camel," actually sports "an extra chin and an ample gut."  Apparently Brownell has seen the enemy and it is him.  But, he would presumably add, it's not his fault.  People are helpless victims of evil profit-minded fast food restaurants and soft drink manufacturers.

Yummy!
Thick lawyers and thickburgers:  Hungry?  If you grab a new Hardee's Monster Thickburger, you won't be.  The burger, which is 2.5 inches thick, packs 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat.  It contains two 1/3-pound slabs of all-Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame-seed bun.

Big Media Continue Skewing Obesity Debate.  Diet and obesity continue to weigh heavily on the minds of Americans.  Those concerns have carried over to the news media, but the coverage takes on a strong anti-business slant, as if businesses and advertisers were responsible for obesity.

The Food Police:  Coming Soon to a Texas School Lunchroom.  School nutrition guidelines were recently announced by the Texas Department of Agriculture.  The 15-page culinary blacklist amounts to yet another attempt by big government bureaucrats to usurp the power of local governments, school districts, teachers and parents charged with the primary education and care of our children.

Hyperbolic Hypocrisy.  The critics of consumer choice and enemies of a wide variety of menu options have never been known for their consistency.  From flip-flops about obesity lawsuits to schizophrenic support of domestic terrorism, the food cops, animal rights nuts, and other radical activists have practically got the market cornered on hypocrisy.

Soda Pop Media Feeding Frenzy.  An article in the August 25 [2004] issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Weight Gain, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Young and Middle-Aged Women," adds yet another chapter to the feeding frenzy that drives our nation's love affair with epidemiological risk factorology.  The article is a textbook case of misusing epidemiological research for the development of public health recommendations.

No Fizz in Soda Scare.  The food police filed a petition this week with the federal government to require that regular (non-diet) soft drinks carry health warning labels.  But scientific data, including a new study published this week, expose such soda scaremongering for what it is — junk science-fueled nanny-ism.

Granola bars, Lay's and Oreos rule, U.S. snack sales data show.  Granola bar sales are booming, especially in Los Angeles.  Lay's rules the potato chip market, but not in Philadelphia or Baltimore.  And Oreos are the top-selling cookie, period.  Those are some of the findings of a study of snack sales over the past year in U.S. supermarkets, compiled by Chicago-based Information Resources Inc.

Nanny-state nonsense from the country that once ruled half the world.  England used to be a world power.  Now it is morphing into a caricature of political correctness.  A government proposal to ban TV advertising for "junk food" makes a mockery of the principles of freedom and individual responsibility.

Now health and safety cut number of holes in chip shop salt shakers.  Pot-holed roads, crumbling schools, litter-strewn streets — there's no shortage of problem areas crying out for their attention.  But councils believe they have found a better use for their money: reducing the number of holes in chip shop salt shakers.

Why the State Hates Cholesterol:  Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body.  This fascinating molecule, found in rich abundance in the tastiest of foods, is the most critical component of mental function — surely one reason the State has waged its historical role on this vilified yet truly magnificent molecule, independent thought being the primary threat to its existence.

Dishing It Out, But Not Taking It.  When it comes to criticism, Morgan Spurlock, director of "Super Size Me," can dish it out, but he sure can't take it.  Ask him a tough question, and he turns to blubber.

'American Morning' is on a Yo-Yo Diet of Obesity Hype.  Has CNN's "American Morning" gotten its fill of the "obesity epidemic" hype?  Maybe not, but on two separate occasions in the past few days, the program's reporters have scoffed at candy makers' and schools' attempts to keep kids from developing a sweet tooth.

Supersized Bias:  Big Media's Role In Covering And Promoting the Obesity Debate.  More and more Americans are obsessed with their weight, and the news media have responded with an abundance of stories about food and fat.  But there's more to the fat story than just giving the public more news they can use.  Some anti-corporate activists have seized upon the public's worries about weight to bash the companies that feed America.  They argue that the fattening of America is less the result of poor personal choices than poor behavior by U.S. businesses, and that the "obesity epidemic" can best be cured through a diet of new taxes, more regulations, and a flood of lawyer-enriching lawsuits.

 Note:   The following article contains profanity.

Let's Sue Somebody.  The food police are looking to take a healthy bite out of corporate America.  What is their beef?  They think the food industry is making all of us fat.  Are they recommending we eat less or hit the gym?  Not really.  Their solution is lawsuits, of course.

The food police say milk is unhealthy for kids.  CSPI has added whole and 2% milk to their list of "poor nutritional quality" beverages and says they should be removed from schools.  "Anyone who would suggest that milk is unhealthy for kids is out to lunch," said Richard Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom.  "CSPI once boasted that it was 'proud about finding something wrong with practically everything.'  Now it's proven it."

Who's Behind The Latest Anti-Soda Study?  It hasn't been published or peer-reviewed, but in the last few days nearly 100 media outlets have reported on a questionable bit of number-crunching that tries to link soda consumption with diabetes.  Five of the study's seven coauthors, it turns out, are certified obesity alarmists, and some have close ties with the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Is Obesity an Epidemic?  A new report disputes commonly used statistics and cites evidence of obesity hysteria driven by pharmaceutical industry.

Pass the Cheeseburger Bill, Hold the Lawsuits.  Americans overwhelmingly agree that restaurants should not be sued over obesity.

To thwart lawyers, Pennsylvania should pass its own burger bill.  Remember the guy who sued fast-food restaurants for making him fat?  He became a poster boy for frivolous litigation.  But that hasn't stopped the trial lawyers who see dollar signs where most of us see dinner.

Food Fight:  Politically charged talk about the so-called "epidemic" of obesity has, itself, reached epidemic proportions.  Elected officials, presidential candidates, mid-level bureaucrats, and left-wing activist leaders are playing a high-profile game of leapfrog to see who can come up with the most outrageous proposals.

Salmon:  Health food or pink poison?  Like alcohol and chocolate before it, salmon is now the subject of contradictory science.  So what is the bewildered, bemused consumer to do, pelted with so many admonitions about what to eat, what not to eat, and how to eat it?

There's Just No Satisfying The Food Cops:  Thankfully, most Americans have rejected proposals to tax, ban, regulate and restrict their favorite foods.  But some activists won't take this obvious hint.

Soft Drink Hysteria is Hard to Swallow.  Legendary TV chef Julia Child, who passed away [recently], warned us that "when you're afraid of your food, you don't digest it well."  Unfortunately, American consumers have been scared silly about nearly every item on the menu, from beef and chicken to salmon and veggies.  The latest phony food scare centers on soft drinks and their alleged link to type 2 diabetes.

AMA Drops Call for Soft Drinks Tax.  The American Medical Association (AMA) has backed away from a proposed resolution calling for states and the federal government to levy special taxes on "sugary drinks that are devoid of nutritional value."  At a November meeting of AMA delegates in Las Vegas, delegates instead opted for an alternate resolution calling for collaborative efforts across the health and beverage industries to fight obesity.

Anti-cheese campaign is seen as 'nannying gone mad'.  New advertising rules which will brand cheese as "junk food" were yesterday criticised as "dietary nannying gone mad" by a leading farming industry figure.  "To suggest there is anything inherently harmful about cheese is absurd," said the National Farming Union's national director of communications, Anthony Gibson.  He said the rules would be "thoroughly unhelpful to farmers" at a time when the dairy industry had been going through a very difficult 12 months.

Soda Study Is the Latest Fizzy Science From Food Police.  A newly published study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was co-authored by several individuals with close ties to the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), an activist group leading the nation's anti-soda crusade today.

The Michael Moore of Fast Food:  How does a film-industry nobody become the liberal elite's favorite filmmaker? By trashing the world's most successful corporation.

Public-Health Zealots Hit Sour Note.  The choir of anti-obesity fatheads is reaching a crescendo as a new article in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) describes a purported consensus among public-health busybodies in favor of severe restrictions on our favorite foods.

Biotech Food Is Safe and Widely Used.  Anti-biotechnology activists claimed recently that "genetically modified" material, albeit in minuscule amounts, has moved into and thereby "contaminates" conventionally produced seed supplies.  As usual, they're way off base.  In fact, the "contamination" is more like finding Lexus parts in your Yugo.

French fries kill?  Almost no week goes by without a report on some food or environmental danger that can kill us.  It is quite remarkable that any of us are alive given our exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos, lead in paint, cellular phones and seesaws; our ingesting alcohol, sugar, fat and arsenic-laden water; and our inhaling polluted air.

No French Fries, No Peace!  Last week, McDonald's announced that it would eliminate the Super Size option from its menus.  McDonald's claims this move will simplify its menu. However, we all know that this explanation is … ridiculous.  McDonald's is attempting to defend against the next round of fast food lawsuits.

If you are what you eat, then sue.  The House of Representatives voted 276 to 139 Wednesday [3/10/2004] to pass the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act — also known as the "cheeseburger bill" — to prohibit overweight Americans from suing the food industry for their avoirdupois.  Given that a 2003 Gallup Poll found that 89 percent of Americans don't believe in blaming the fast-food industry for obesity, you'd think the bill is unnecessary.

Governor Doyle to Obesity Lawyers:  "Bring 'Em On".  Governor Doyle's vetoes mean that the food industry remains exposed to frivolous obesity claims and that these claims can be based on "junk science."  The Wisconsin legislature ought to override these vetoes.

Fast food damnation:  The day before the House approved the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act by a 2-to-1 margin, [it was said that] the bill "is surely premature, because there has been only one obesity lawsuit, and it was dismissed by a federal judge."

Ice Cream From Hell:  The FDA doesn't want to ban ice cream.  It just wants the power to do so.  It wants the power to define substances like dioxin as health threats at any level of concentration whatever.  And guess what.  There's dioxin in ice cream.

Does FDA Regulation Violate the Constitution?  From the orange juice we drink to begin our day, to the lunch we eat at a restaurant, to the wine we consume in the evening, the federal Food and Drug Administration regulates what nutritional and health information food and drug manufacturers can share with us. When Ocean Spray's Web site recently provided information and links to health research regarding juice consumption, the FDA threatened to seize the company's inventory, because the agency had not approved the "health claims."

Horse slaughter banned.  The House voted on Thursday [9/7/2006] to ban the slaughter of horses for meat, a practice that lawmakers thought they already had ended.  Instead of banning it outright, Congress last year yanked the salaries and expenses of federal inspectors.  But the Bush administration simply started charging plants for inspections, and the slaughter has continued.

The Editor says...
If people want to eat horse meat, why stop them?  My understanding was that most horse meat ends up in dog food anyway.  The opposition to slaughtering horses is another example of decision making based upon emotion instead of reasoning.

Pass the Toxins & Carcinogens.  We live in an intensely chemical-phobic society, one where food labels and menus brag of being "all-natural" and "purely organic."  Poultry sections offer fryers from "happy, free range chickens."  "Chemical-free" cuisine is in.

Reducto Ad Totalitarianism:  [We need to] return to the concept of man as a rational, self-responsible individual entitled to make his own decisions — and take his own risks — without the paternalistic "protection" of liability lawyers.

The Case against Lawyers:  In her new book, Catherine Crier identifies the culprits in what she terms a flight from responsibility: the creation of a system of endless rules, mandates, implied duties, and special legislation in our current legal system.

The Man with "Television Addiction" Threatens to Sue Cable Company:  Tim Dumouchel of Fond du Lac said his family's viewing habits — forced on him by cable TV — caused his wife to become overweight and his children to grow lazy.

Ailing Man Sues Fast-Food Firms:  A New York City lawyer has filed suit against the four big fast-food corporations, saying their fatty foods are responsible for his client's obesity and related health problems.

Who's Next?  Krispy Kreme?  Legal Man Takes on the "Fat Pushers":  In today's America, of course, giving people free and enticing donuts may be enough to set up Krispy Kreme for a lawsuit … by fatties.

The Fast Food Three vs. The Whopper:  Just as smokers sue tobacco companies, despite 40 years of warning labels, this lawsuit asks us to believe people too stupid, too ignorant to distinguish between healthy and non-healthy diets.

Fat is as fat does:  Humorist Art Buchwald once observed that it was becoming more difficult to write satire because truth was funnier.  That's how I feel about news that a 56-year-old New York man is suing four leading fast food chains for contributing to his obesity, several heart attacks and other health problems.

"Food Police" Target Pizza:  The same group that said Chinese food, popcorn and soft drinks were no good for us is now targeting another of America's favorite food items: pizza.

Senator Wants Limits On Schoolyard Junk Food A Vermont senator believes too many public school students are being sold what he considers "unhealthy drinks and snacks" during lunch in school and he wants the Agriculture Department to tighten up its regulations on such sales.  His legislation would "tighten" current federal regulations under the National School Lunch Program.

 Editor's Note:   The story above was originally on one of the media bias pages because it is the kind of "news" story that appears on local TV news programs without any rebuttal.  You're supposed to hear the story and feel better about your big omniscient government protecting "America's Children."  But sooner or later, kids are going to have to learn how to make their own decisions about their diets.  This "pro-choice" Senator prefers to put more laws on the books rather than allowing kids to make their own dietary choices.  I suggest that he's more interested in increasing the power of the government than in improving the children's health.

(Related stories below.)

Soft Drinks, Hard BiasSen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., just introduced a bill to restrict sales of soft drinks in schools.  "The Better Nutrition for School Children Act of 2001" comes on the heels of a series of anti-soft drink articles in The Washington Post.  But Sen. Leahy should know better than to believe everything he reads.

Hard bias over soft drinks:  The Washington Post, in not reporting a study contradicting a government report on children and soft drinks, seems "more interested in frightening parents and children than informing them."

Fizzy Myths Live On:  In a feel-good column about mother-knows-best practical health advice, a Los Angeles Times columnist falls prey to the baseless claims about soft drinks.

Anti-Meat Activists Target School Lunches:  A health scare over school lunches is brewing. The driving forces behind the junk science-fueled scare are the usual suspects — anti-meat and environmental activist groups, and politicians who do the groups' bidding.

Back to News from the Culture War
Back to the Home page


Custom counter developed in-house

Document location http://akdart.com/food.html
Updated August 22, 2008.

Page design by Andrew K. Dart  ©2008