Nutrition activists and opportunistic bureaucrats seem to have an endless supply of screwy ways to “improve” our diets. Here are the highlights from the past week:
Following the lead of Japan, Britain, and a heap of other fat-fighting countries, Germany has announced a national campaign against obesity. Now, it’s just a waiting game to see if they’ll implement the Japanese limits on waist size or England’s state-sponsored fat camps.
For years, food activists have blamed love handles on the low cost of food. And a columnist in today’s New York Sun bought into the corollary of that theory, suggesting that “higher-price Twinkies will prove a blessing in disguise.” This is the same kind of questionable logic that fuels the movement to artificially inflate the cost of “bad” (a/k/a “tasty”) food through Twinkie taxes.
Organizers for the upcoming Democratic National Convention have outlawed anything fried in their “lean ‘n’ green” guidelines for food allowed at the event. The extreme requirements don’t end there. All dishes must contain at least three pre-approved colors (red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white). And 70 percent of ingredients have to be organic or local.
In another political effort to change individuals’ diets, lawmakers in the Big Apple issued licenses for 500 food carts required to sell only fruit and vegetables (no hot dogs or falafels allowed). But not everyone’s on board with the policy. City Councilman John Liu doubted the efficacy of Mayor Bloomberg’s latest public health measure in the New York Times: “Where do we have an example where increasing supply actually increases demand? That is backwards voodoo economics. It doesn’t work.”
