Capital Weekly, March 8, 2007

Legislators in Sacramento are pushing four new laws that would mandate California restaurant chains and grocery stores to reveal nutrition information immediately and ban all trans fats by 2009. Legislators believe they are fighting the obesity epidemic, but they are also expanding a government that is already overweight.

The current obsession with obesity is driven by studies, such as the recent report by the nonprofit California Center for Public Health Advocacy, which found that California has an average of 4.18 times as many fast-food restaurants and convenience stores as supermarkets and produce vendors. San Bernardino County was found to have the worst ratio; 5.72 to one junk-food to healthy-food venues.

The study's authors admit their findings are not necessarily associated with adverse health in California, but they still necessitate a "healthy food environment" where healthy choices can be "readily identified and easily purchased." CCPHA authors recommend that federal, state and local policy makers expand government programs to make fruits and vegetables more affordable, mandate that restaurants post nutrition information, and set limitations on the number of fast-food restaurants in the state.

The ensuing proposals in California, and at least 13 other states according tothe National Restaurant Association, follow the recent New York City ban on trans fats. Trans fats found in processed food are considered unhealthy because they raise bad cholesterol (LDL) in our bodies, and lower good cholesterol (HDL). Saturated fats raise both types of cholesterol. 

The proposals, however, ignore established evidence that food companies have used partially hydrogenated fats since the 1920s, but heart disease has decreased by 60 percent in the United States since 1950.

The owner of BJ's Kountry Kitchen recently told Sacramento Bee, "I think people, while they might not know the exact content [of their food], they know that a salad has less calories typically than a cheeseburger."

This is true. Public policy should value, not dismiss individual will and knowledge. But the authors of the CCPHA study claim the following: "Looking more deeply at the origins of obesity … reveals a complex array of factors that influence the balance between 'calories in' and 'calories out.'"

The only "complex array" existing in California's food industry is the incredible wealth of food choices available today. A top agricultural producer, California is home to the Salinas Valley, also called "the salad bowl" to the entire planet. Whole Foods, the world's leading organic-foods supermarket, has 40 stores in California, or about 20 percent of its almost 200 stores in the U.S., Britain and Canada. "Calories in and calories out" has everything to do with personal choice and nothing to do with government policy.

If changes are necessary in the food industry, it is already doing so voluntarily. All of Wendy's 6,000 restaurants have cut trans-fat content significantly. KFC plans to be trans-fat free in a month, and last January,Starbucks started removing trans fats from its food in almost 3,000 coffee shops nationwide. Even Disneyland proposed trans-fat restrictions, and every single restaurant in Tiburon has eliminated trans fats from meals.

Those who think trans fats pose serious danger can be assured that the FDA has done more than enough to keep Americans informed. It required that saturated fat and cholesterol be listed on food labels in 1993, and trans fats as of last January. By law, Americans can stay educated about how much fat, saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol they consume in the products they purchase.

California legislators may fall for propaganda, but California consumers certainly don't. Convinced that we don't know any better, legislators would rather eliminate our food choices and tighten the reins on restaurants. But every dollar wasted on government regulation would be better spent by businesses developing healthier cooking oils in response to our preferences, and restaurants are already doing just that.

Food marketers are proving to be on the right track, and so are Americans. State politicians should let individuals make their own food choices and get to work trimming obesity in government.

Diana M. Ernst is a policy fellow in Health Care Studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute, www.pacificresearch.org.