That is an interesting question.  I mean, they do anyhow, dont they?  Food must be fresh, and prepared in certain conditions, and not contain know carcinogenic substances and so on.  I guess it depends on what you consider to be a serious enough health risk.

And some attempts to regulate just plain dont work - look at temparance. 

I wonder how this trans fat ban will be implemented.  Can they really pull it off practically?  How will it work?  I mean - its one thing to make a law and another to implement it.

I admit, not being a nutrionist I can't tell you what foods have trans fat in them, and what does not.  I would hope that we'd all make good choices on our own and choose to not eat anything unhealthy.  I can understand the government protecting those who just don't know and making sure trans fats are off the menus.

 I do know that after reading the FDA website's information about Trans Fat, it doesn't sound like something any of us need.

Basically, trans fat is made when manufacturers add
hydrogen to vegetable oil--a process called hydrogenation.
Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods
containing these fats.

Trans fat can be found in vegetable shortenings, some
margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods made with
or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. Unlike other fats, the
majority of trans fat is formed when food manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine. A small amount of trans fat is found naturally, primarily in some animal-based foods.

 

  Since we can't see the labels of the foods we eat at resturants, I think this is a good plan.

Doris

The Leaky Cauldron

Reading and Writing and Chocolate

Fit, Fabulous and Forty the Natural Way

HOORAY for California!  I actually thought that NYC did this a while ago, and I remember celebrating in my head when they did.  It's a step towards REAL food.  Hooray!

I'm a big lard proponent. About 5 years ago, my family and I made a vow to start what we call our Little House On The Prairie Diet.  The basic principal was that if Ma Ingalls had it in her pantry, I would have it in mine. Butter. Lard. Raw Milk. Fresh (seasonal and local) veggies. Oddly, our consumption of whole, natural, fats increases drastically. We all lost weight, cholesterol went down, general health and fitness improved.

I'm not a nutritionist, but I tend to look at it this way. Our bodies are natural things that exist to consume foods found in nature. As long as those foods are whole, unprocessed, in their natural states, I think we're well equipped to digest them and get the maximum nutritional benefit from them.  My car, by contrast, is a machine that exists to consume man made chemicals. So that's what I feed it.  I don't feed my car raw milk. I don't feed my body things that went through a chemical process to become something else.

If you study - even a little bit - much about the accessibility of nutrients, you learn that a lot of the vitamins and minerals we need are fat soluble, yet we're removing (or changing) fats from our diet... Scary.  

Lard and butter are simple to digest. That said, the lard you get in stores has been hydrogenated, so I make my own.  If you're curious about how to make it, let me know and I'll keep chiming in. (And OMG, pie crusts made with lard! YUMMY!)

There are a lot of people writing about the benefits of lard and butter, but here are some that I like:

Pete Wells in Food & Wine

NY Times about the fabulousness of lard in baked goods 

Weston A Price Foundation about putting healthy fat back IN our diets (these guys are freaky dogmatic, but I happen to agree with them, they're the Nourishing Traditions folks, which I think should be a BIBLE for healthful natural eating. But yes, they're way far out there.)

____________

Alyssa Royse

Just Cause It: A Web Site To Save The World

Start Her Up: A Blog for Women Entrepreneurs

Do not get me wrong....I love my cheats from time to time, especially after a long training ride, but by then I have earned it. No trans-fat in restaurants is a great idea; just as good for you as the only smoking outside initiative. I would love to see more and more restaurants taking this initiative on their own, even for just a more general, well rounded healthy menu. Being single I will admit to not getting to the grocery store enough, but when I do I pretty much stick to outside isles only and do not eat processed food -- having more healthy options at restaurants, for example a mix of greens and spinach for a salad as opposed to iceberg, would highly increase the nutritional value in most salads, nixing the bacon, cheese and avacado ranch dressing! Anyway, I think its fab and hope the rest of the nation catches on soon. It scares me to see how many people do not take food health and nutrition seriously, especially in the restaurant business!  

I live in California so I'm thrilled that these little suckers will be removed from my oft-craved, seldom-purchased bakery items. But in certain pieces of legislation, the food police have discriminated against the poor by targeting only fast food restaurants, as if the people who chose McDonalds can't be trusted to monitor their own nutrition but the folks who order Fetticini Alfredo at a Wolfganag Puck joint can. That bothers me. If trans fat is bad for our health, it's bad for our health.

SatelliteSisterLian

www.satellitesisters.com

Anything that has no value, is bad for us, can be substituted without us even noticing should definitely be a candidate for legislation banning it. I mean when you go to a restaurant they don't ask if you would like Trans or Non-Trans fat do they?!? Let's trash trans...

Paula

Some great women's health advice and information.