What happens when the NY Times gets an “author who is writing a book about fats” to write an op-ed about trans fats? You get a load of tripe like Nuggets of Death.
The F.D.A. should set a limit of 5 percent here. Opponents of such a cap have argued that it is not worth the trouble, because the average American consumes so little trans fat. But the Danish study clearly shows that some — especially the sizable population eating fast foods — consume trans fats in dangerous doses.Others have argued that the government should let consumers choose for themselves. But consumers can’t make informed choices when so much of their food isn’t labeled. And given that we are expected to monitor salt, high-fructose corn syrup, peanut traces and other potential dangers, a trip through the supermarket is already beginning to resemble taking the SAT.
None of this is much of a surprise, of course. Nina Teicholz has been sounding the trans fat alarm for years, including a Gourmet magazine piece in 2004. She also pounds on every proponent of the nanny state’s favorite enemy, Wal Mart, bemoaning the retail giant’s entry into foodstuffs by writing in Gourmet in 2005 that “we will increasingly be eating according to mass-market tastes, shopping in massive Supercenters and living in the world that Wal-Mart built.” Can’t have the common folk eating what they want when they have good ol’ Nina telling them what they should eat, at least if they subscribe to Gourmet.
And what of personal responsibility? No, we need the government, because it’s just too hard to pay attention to what one sticks in one’s gullet. Why, it took a Danish study to determine that McDonald’s products have so many trans fats, right? Not exactly. No one disputes that too many fats of all kinds are bad for you. Current science indicates that too many trans fats are particularly bad. But the answer is not to get the government into the food content regulating business. It’s for people to take responsibility. But that’s something people like Nina Teicholz will never accept - if people have to accept the consequences for what they do, where’s the market for scolding journalism from people like Nina Teicholz.
And like all food scolds, Teicholz can’t be bothered with little things like facts when there’s an agenda at stake. Ed Cone notes that Teicholz claims that “Trans fats are also easily manipulated, able to give a Goldfish cracker its crunch, for instance,” while Pepperidge Farms’ product actually contains no trans fats.
