Friday, June 12, 2015

Nanny FDA poised to ban trans fats: 'Hold onto your salt shaker,' critic warns

Can anybody say: Mayor Bloomberg? (king of nanny-state governance)

The Food and Drug Administration is poised to announce new bans on artificial trans-fats, and regulatory watchdogs are warning: The nanny state is alive and thriving.

"Hold onto your salt-shaker," said Jeff Stier, director of Risk Analysis with the National Center for Public Policy Research, in a written statement. "There's more to come from this administration. ... [This is] a horrible idea."

Stier also busted out a 2013 FDA claim that reducing the level of trans-fats in Americans' diets could stop 20,000 or so heart attacks and 7,000 deaths per year, calling those figures "preposterous back then" and even more egregiously false now.

"They are even more far-removed from reality today, as markets responded to consumer demand and have already lowered the amount of trans-fat in food," he said, in his statement. "The FDA's scary assumptions are based on wobbly models piled on top of wishful thinking and doused with junk science."

The FDA originally brought forth its trasns-fat phase-out idea in late 2013 but is expected to finalize its regulatory curbs as soon as Monday. The agency is expected to boot trans-fats from its "generally recognized as safe" category, which will require any company that wants to use them to first petition the for FDA approval, the Huffington Post reported.

Among the foods containing trans-fats: Commercially baked goods, microwave pizza and fried foods.

Stier said the little trans-fats that are used nowadays, like in microwave popcorn, ice cream sprinkles and some restaurant biscuits," are there because they serve a specific function."

He went on: "For instance, trans-fats are stable for a longer period of time, so a ban on even the most narrow uses of trans-fats will undoubtedly lead to more expensive food and more food waste."

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