To the Editor:
Jon Wisniewski's stand that the New York City Health Department's ban on trans fatty acids should be opposed on some sort of ideological grounds ("The Western Tradition of Trans Fat," Oct. 7) is as silly as it is bogus.
It is not as though people specifically crave trans fats in the foods they eat. The food industry added trans fat to the American diet via hydrogenation processes intended to extend shelf life and increase profits.
Trans fat serves no biological or taste-oriented needs, as they are simply a by-product of the hydrogenation process. It is not as though Big Brother is eliminating doughnuts and French fries from New Yorkers' diets or depriving consumers of the choice to consume these foods.
Moreover, alternatives to trans fats are both safe and affordable. Consequently, forcing restaurants to eliminate them is hardly falling prey to "antiquated notions of morality" but rather adhering to a much better guide for policy-making: common sense.
Secondly, I agree with Wisniseki that no one is "forcing a gun" to anyone's head to go eat in restaurants whose foods contain trans fats or, for that matter, allow smoking. However, his adoption of such a simplistic view on the issues of trans fat and smoking bans fails to take into account the structure of the U.S. health care system. As a citizen, you are obligated to pay (forced with a gun, if you will) for a huge volume of U.S. medical expenditures, such as Medicare, Medicaid or health-related disability insurance. While many health problems related to diet are more directly affected by overall caloric intake rather than the specific intake of trans fat, trans fat has undoubtedly been shown to contribute to such problems.
Trans fatty acids raise both LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels and are associated with higher incidences of obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes. These conditions, almost all entirely preventable but nevertheless rapidly on the rise, directly play a stunningly enormous role in U.S. health care expenditure. Throw the problem of smoking into this mix, a problem that Wisniewski seems to callously dismiss, and you can probably account for almost half of all U.S. health care expenditures, morbidity and mortality.
Finally, in writing this letter, I am hardly attempting to beset the legacy of democracy's "giants" as one is wont to infer from Wisniewski's philosophical examination of laws that control behavior.
Rather, I am trying to rebut the loose throwing around of terms such as "Orwellian," "Mills," "Magna Carta," and the "Declaration of Independence" in reference to a decision made by the New York City Health Department that hardly needs justification by philosophical underpinnings. The phasing out of trans fat from the American diet should be strongly encouraged and is in essence a "no-brainer."
