FDA to ban trans fats

[ThinClient]

Oh look. Another moron who puts words in my mouth because I dare disagree with him.

 

[smackababy]

I saw the headline this morning and didn't read the article. I am only against it due to it being more needless regulation. All in the name of good, for people who can't be bothered to look after their own health.

 

[ThinClient]

Labeling is fear mongering.

So what if its snake oil. Consumers do not need to know.

Nobody's saying that they don't need to know. Those that don't know that the vast majority of the food they buy at the supermarket is GMO are willfully ignorant on the matter.

I knowingly buy it.

Changing the label isn't going to do anything. Whatsoever.

 

[ThinClient]

For trans fats the market should decide.

Look at it this way. The market wants trans fat. The public knows trans fat is monumentally dangerous but they don't care. The buy products anyway, leading to increased health problems.

NOBODY GIVES A FUCK.

The FDA is stepping in to protect us from ourselves.

 

[ch33zw1z]

For trans fats the market should decide.

So where do you draw the line. If it's unhealthy and causes severe medical issues, the FDA should stay out of it?

 

[BoberFett]

If it's not in the jurisdiction of the "Food and Drug Administration" to regulate what constitutes "food," why bother having the FDA at all?

Personally, I favor the FDA as a research and education department rather than having the ability to control commerce directly, but I'm sure I'm in a tiny minority there.

 

[BUnit1701]

Look at it this way. The market wants trans fat. The public knows trans fat is monumentally dangerous but they don't care. The buy products anyway, leading to increased health problems.

NOBODY GIVES A FUCK.

The FDA is stepping in to protect us from ourselves.

The public doesn't know which party Barack Obama affiliates with, but you expect us to believe they know not only that trans-fats are bad, but which products they are contained in?

 

[brycejones]

For trans fats the market should decide.

So you would support the universal labeling of trans fats so the market could really decide?

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

So where do you draw the line. If it's unhealthy and causes severe medical issues, the FDA should stay out of it?

Technically speaking cigarettes are still sold legally. Pure poison in packs of 20, zero actual health benefits, just a mountain of money behind it.

 

[Franz316]

I saw the headline this morning and didn't read the article. I am only against it due to it being more needless regulation. All in the name of good, for people who can't be bothered to look after their own health.

/thinking out loud

Which begs the question: Why do we have a system that incentivizes cost cutting to the point of being detrimental to our own health in the first place? It seems like there are misplaced priorities..? Maybe I'm just crazy. I'm all for personal responsibility but to exempt corporations or the system from any wrong doing since they are merely reacting to some all powerful force is a cop-out. It is a conscience decision that is made by people.

 

[BoberFett]

/thinking out loud

Which begs the question: Why do we have a system that incentivizes cost cutting to the point of being detrimental to our own health in the first place? It seems like there are misplaced priorities..? Maybe I'm just crazy.

Americans are all about cheap. When things are cheap, you can buy more. We focus on quantity rather than quality and companies simply respond to the consumer's desires.

 

[ThinClient]

/thinking out loud

Which begs the question: Why do we have a system that incentivizes cost cutting to the point of being detrimental to our own health in the first place? It seems like there are misplaced priorities..? Maybe I'm just crazy.

The short answer is that people are greedy and we elect people to positions of authority. Combine greed with power which always corrupts and you have the perfect storm of bullshitery.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Technically speaking cigarettes are still sold legally. Pure poison in packs of 20, zero actual health benefits, just a mountain of money behind it.

yup, no excuse. I don't count money as an excuse, but that's the reason.

 

[ThinClient]

The public doesn't know which party Barack Obama affiliates with, but you expect us to believe they know not only that trans-fats are bad, but which products they are contained in?

This is yet another reason why the FDA needs to exist.

 

[trenchfoot]

The FDA, like most other federal regulatory agencies, have long been infiltrated and corrupted to a certain extent, so it seems to me that any time these agencies can do the job they're being paid to do it's a plus.

It just seems like it takes a whole lot of dying and disablements to get them to do the right thing though.

And the carnage usually happens in between the time when a potentially dangerous product somehow gets FDA approval and when the lawyers start suing the manufacturers who then claim bankruptcy to avoid getting their ill-begotten profits taken away from them.

This process of commiting legal hit and run jobs needs to stop somehow.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Transfat has demonstrated problems. Teflon? No, at least not if used as intended. Burning PTFE probably isn't a really good idea though.

I don't think PTFE burns really at all to begin with. I've heated PTFE tubing in a flame before, it doesn't touch it. The C-F bond is much stronger than the C-O bond -> no combustion.

 

[uclaLabrat]

What are advantages of trans fats? Do they taste better or are they cheaper?

Neither really, they were a by-product of partial hydrogenation, which was done to improve the presentation of the fats (turn oils into solids) and make the shelf life longer (unsaturated fats spoil more quickly than saturated fats because the allylic hydrogen is oxidized by air much more quickly). Using transition metal catalysts for the hydrogenation process isomerises most or all of the naturally occurring cis fats into the more thermodynamically stable trans form.

 

[feralkid]

For those who dont realize, it doesn't matter how hard you squeeze corn, you will never EVER get any oil out of it. Corn oil is a chemical product, nothing natural about it in any way, shape, or form.

Incorrect.

Corn oil is initially expeller pressed (squeezed) just like many other oils.

It is only the later batches that use chemical and/or heat extraction.

 

[feralkid]

/thinking out loud

Which begs the question:

"Begs the question" does not mean what you think it does.

 

[piasabird]

I dont think banning it is the way to go. Just tax the hell out of it or try to convince the restraunts to make a switch voluntarily. Try some seasoning instead of fat. Take some chicken and add some olive oil, garlic, and ginger then add vegetables and a some minced up red pepper. It will taste great. Need better food.

 

[Doppel]

The fact that things like transfats and teflon were approved for use in foods before we knew that they were monumantally bad for you, a growing course of events in the wide wide world of american processed / prepared foods.

Teflon in food?

 

[piasabird]

So what happens when they go a step further and they say caffine is bad so you can no longer drink coffee or tea? What if they ban Sugar and ice cream? When exactly will this selective stop? Will they outlaw Alcohol too? Why not Sugar? Diabetes is killing millions of people.

 

[Moonbeam]

Personally, I favor the FDA as a research and education department rather than having the ability to control commerce directly, but I'm sure I'm in a tiny minority there.

Americans are all about cheap. When things are cheap, you can buy more. We focus on quantity rather than quality and companies simply respond to the consumer's desires.

What the fuck is wrong with you? I came into this thread solely because I thought you'd need mouth to mouth resuscitation.

 

[irishScott]

Next on the list. Corn syrup (dextrose). I hope.

Unfortunately the corn industry has a slightly more powerful lobby than the lard industry.

 

[irishScott]

So what happens when they go a step further and they say caffine is bad so you can no longer drink coffee or tea? What if they ban Sugar and ice cream? When exactly will this selective stop? Will they outlaw Alcohol too? Why not Sugar? Diabetes is killing millions of people.

The same thing that happens when your panic attack ends. Nothing.

They're outlawing it as an additive in commercially produced food. If you want to buy a tub of lard and pour it over your bacon no one's stopping you. If the trans-fat is produced naturally in the food, no one's stopping it.

Likewise I can buy a fryer and make old-school french fries that aren't fried in peanut oil, so long as I don't sell them commercially.