No More Trans Fat in California Restaurants

Photo by Mykl Roventine via Flickr

Hey Guys,

I recently, as in today, joined this group, Roots of Change on Facebook, which my missus actually turned me onto. They’re big proponents of healthy food while educating and connecting people to the benefits of sustainable food. The healthy food ‘movement’ is a huge topic of conversation these days particularly here in Cali and especially this week mainly due to the fact that as of New Years Day California is the first state to ban trans fat from restaurants. Good news!

Although the bill was signed by the Governator back in’08 it has only come into effect this week. There are a few cities like Philly, Boston and NYC that have already made the move but California being the first state has defo put it to everyone else to follow suit.

Now, there are a couple of things here.

I’m all for loosing the trans fats. If Micky D’s has to stop adding trans fats to their burgers n fries that’s great especially for the kids (and adults) who devour this stuff. That being said the burgers are still smothered in full fat mayo, ketchup and other ’secret’ sauces and the fries and still deep fried so by banning all the trans fats is it really going to help our childhood obesity epidemic?? Now, I’m all for this BUT is banning trans fats really an answer or just a first step in helping people help themselves?

Obviously trans fats play a distinctive role in our health and well being but I think we now need to start educating people about how to make wiser food choices.

Another thing, do people need our (local) government taking control of how we eat? Should it not be up to Average Joe and Jane to make their own decisions how they want to eat?

I say yes it should be up to us IF we knew exactly what was/is in our food BUT we don’t, do we? Not always anyway – even fresh veggies might be Genetically Modified.

Have any of you seen the movie Food Inc? You should. That’ll open up your eyes quick smart and if all you get out of that movie is to ask questions and learn about where our food comes from, that’s a good result in my book.

These are just a few thoughts that came to mind.

I’d love to hear what you all think of this particularly looking at the bigger picture of obesity, food education and Government control.

Where do we go from here?

Cheers.