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The increasingly regulated world we eat in keeps twisting in new and unusual ways, the headline-occupying trans fat ban by the New York City Board of Health–a move the Restaurant Association calls an example of “well-intentioned, misguided social engineering“–being only the most recent kink. New York’s trans fat debates mirror our city’s struggles over foie gras, in that overriding health concerns, whether for humans or ducks or–below–for children, have pushed the issue past the area of personal responsibility into (for lack of a better term) states’ rights. The RA–which has been working to get rid of trans fats–still has concerns over a “municipal health agency banning a product or ingredient the Food and Drug Administration has already approved.”
In 2004, new wellness guidelines were passed by the Department of Agriculture to be implemented by every school district that participates in the federal school meals program by the first day of this school year. They mandated the creation of local policies by schools, parents, and nutritionists based on federal nutritional guidelines (which were updated this year in the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act, eliminating foods not meeting “minimal nutritional requirements” from school cafeterias and vending machines). And in implementing these guidelines on a local level cupcakes started to disappear from classrooms, not to mention candy fundraisers and bakesales, as school districts everywhere decided that bringing in sweet treats for birthdays was no longer OK.
