Your opinion on trans fats?

Question

This is only for an article I'm working on.
currently the government has gone to great lengths to ban trans fats from restaurants and from our diets. On the otherhand quite a few people are saying that it is our constitutional right to eat unhealthy food and give ourselves heart attacks. What do you think?
Should the government go this far as to banning trans fat or should they take another approach like warning labels.
I mean adults consuming trans fats. I understand the ban with children eating them.
Also i would like you opinion on what insurance compnaies should do about these people.

Answer 1

The question may really be "Will there be trans-fat free food available for those who want it?"

Those who are more interested in producing a commodity for sale for the cheapest possible price and greatest profit, rather than producing food that is healthy and wholesome, may not be able to be trusted to keep the consumer's health in mind. Transfats are not found in nature. They are produced in agrichemical plants and were once thought to be pretty neat, since they don't spoil as fast as untreated fats.

Those who don't really care what they eat really have only a minor stake in this, since they won't be hurt by this legislation. Who has a major stake? The producers eager to make a profit selling cheap but unhealthy food, and those who want to be able to find a trans-fat-free meal when they eat out. Perhaps HMO's also have a stake, since they will be treating fewer heart patients if transfats are banned.

Once educated, the public would probably begin to make correct choices, if it weren't for the influence of advertising on the problem.

My Bottom line:
People offering food for sale should be and have been regulated as to what constitutes food. Since transfat is not found in nature, and has been found to be harmful to human beings, no food producer has an inalienable right to contaminate food with it. So bring on the ban.

If a consumer wants to pick up a bucket of transfat to put in his own food, that is his right, just as he could deep fry his Twinkies in motor oil if he wants, as long as he doesn't give it to children, or poison someone else with it.

Answer 2

The reason people are gaining weight and getting ill is because the majority of us eat "fast food". We eat it at restaurants, at home, on the road, everywhere. If we all simply went back to eating whole foods, organically grown/fed/raised, with no processing our general health would get better. The weight thing can be solved by getting off our butts and walking to work if possible or biking and spending our off time outside and out from in front of our computers and tv's. The last thing we need is more government telling us what to eat or do or say. The only regulation I would support would be what the schools are feeding kids at lunch. Have you seen this stuff? It is not at all healthy. I bet McDonalds would score higher in nutritional value. As far as insurance goes, the companies have the right to charge higher premiums for higher risk clients and they do. Should they make it impossible to insure people who are overweight? No, that would be discrimination, but they should have to pay for their choices.