The geniuses in New York have decided that, since they've defeated food that tastes good by banning trans fat, now it's time to defeat food that tastes kind of good by attacking salt.

On Monday, the Bloomberg administration plans to unveil a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products.

The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a goal of reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years.

Public health experts say that would reduce the incidence of high blood pressure and should help prevent some of the strokes and heart attacks associated with that condition. The plan is voluntary for food companies and involves no legislation. It allows companies to cut salt gradually over five years so the change is not so noticeable to consumers.

“We all consume way too much salt, and most of the salt we consume is in the food when we buy it,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, the city health commissioner, whose department is leading the effort. Eighty percent of the salt in Americans’ diets comes from packaged or restaurant food. Dr. Farley said reducing salt from those sources would save lives.

Sure, it's voluntary now, but do any of us really believe that it'll stay voluntary?  After all, once upon a time, they were just nicely asking retaurants to cut back on trans fat. 

I fucking hate this kind of bullshit.  It drives me up the goddamn wall; it's my body, I'll eat what the fuck I want, and if I get high cholesterol or blood pressure or whatever the fuck problem, then it's my own damn fault for not thinking, "Hmm, this can of processed fucking cow fat mixed with pig lard covered in salt might not be the best thing I've ever put in my fucking mouth."  If you can't fucking control yourself as an eater, I shouldn't have to give up my damn occassional indulgences just because this "should help" reduce fucking heart attacks and strokes.  Stay the fuck out of my food, damnit.  If I want to kill myself on Big Macs, that's my mother-fucking business.

Posted by: Ember at 06:51 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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I sent this to my cobloggers earlier in hopes that one of them would post it, as I'm supposed to be working madly toward a deadline, but apparently none of them has the cojones to start a full-on slapfight here.

Go read this, then meditate for a while on healthcare and welfare in Massachusetts, and then tell me how a disabled mother of nine kids got a tubal ligation during a C-section without signing a consent. 

Side bets will be taken on whether the ensuing settlement requires the state to pay for egg harvesting and implantation so that this gal can have one more kid with the father of three of her rugrats.

Posted by: Alice H at 06:44 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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