New York City’s Board of Health today voted to make the Big Apple the first to ban the Big Mac. … OK, we’re off-topic here and the Big Mac thing is not exactly true, they banned trans fats, but you get the gist that we have finally taken the concept of the nanny state to its absurdly logical destination.
I say this as we approach the third anniversary of my heart attack and as a recovering piggish eater who has managed to cut trans fats all but out of my own diet without the help of a single government entity. (It’s amazing how having a chunk of one’s ticker croak — that’s what happens in a heart attack, a cheery doc told me — will help make those morning donuts seem less appealing.)
The insanity of New York’s action boggles my mind and I truly worry about the implications for the future of public-health policy in this country because it wasn’t that long ago that predictions of this day — they’ll come after hamburgers next — were dismissed as the hysterical rantings of apologists for the tobacco industry and it’s ilk. I can distinctly remember mocking such suggestions.
My apologies to anyone I may have mocked.
My fear is that all manner of important and reasonable public-health policy will be effectively undermined by opponents wave the specter of New York’s ban on junk food.
A better diet and medication have lowered my cholesterol, and, I hope, my risk of another heart attack.
I thought I had my blood pressure under control, too, but I wouldn’t want to take a reading right now.
