NEW YORK – City health officials have battled trans fat and high-calorie fast food. Now, they're taking on salt.The health department planned to release on Monday draft guidelines suggesting the maximum amount of salt that should be in a wide variety of manufactured and packaged foods.
The recommendations call for sizable reductions in the sodium content of many products, from a 20 percent drop in peanut butter to a 40 percent decline in canned vegetables.
Unlike the city's recent ban on trans fat in restaurant food or rules implemented last year requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on their menus, this initiative is purely voluntary.
But even though there will be no penalties for companies that ignore the guidelines, health officials say they think some manufacturers may be motivated to make changes.
"They all fully recognize that sodium is a major health problem that they need to address," said the city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley.
With all due respect, Dr. Thomas Farley -- fuck you, too.
This is none of your fucking business.
If there's one thing I'd like to kick Teddy Roosevelt's ass for, it's the Pure Food and Drug Act he was responsible for back in his day. Because as reasonable as that act was at the time, it has led directly to this bullshit where the government is telling us what we can and cannot eat. The fact that it's "voluntary" is just a threat -- the unspoken "for now" is well understood.
The rest of the country needs to kick back at this and put New Yuck [sic] in its place -- preferably 100 or so miles east of where it currently is, i.e., in the (salt!) water where it belongs. Just because Nurse Bloomberg dictates should not mean the rest of us knee-jerk in reaction. Next they'll be telling us that craft beer and good Kentucky bourbon is bad for our health. At which point tar and feathers need to be employed.
