New York bids to become the worst U.S. "nanny-state city"
Arguing hyperbolically that it is "even more important to reduce consumption of sodium" than to eliminate trans-fat in foods, two staffers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene editorialized in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA , subscription required) that "it is nearly impossible for consumers to greatly reduce their own salt intake." They urge drastic government controls to "protect the public from unhealthy food" such as restrictions on marketing foods they don't like and subsidizing the consumption of government-favored foods, zoning restrictions to bar location of restraurants that serve foods they don't like or taxes on such "bad foods."
In short, the solution is to restrict consumer choices to their know-it-all choices. "The modern food supply is tainted -- it is too salty, too sugary, and too rich in calories, and there is simply too much of such food easily available," they continue, arguing that governments should regulate the amount of salt and added sugar in foods. "Food safety for the 21st century should be reframed....public health systems must reduce the contribution of food to the epidemics of obesity and chronic disease."
Over the past year, with evidence turing against arguments for universal sodium reduction, advocates of cutting salt are becoming shriller and more totalitarian. Perhaps the the NYC Department of Health is upset that reason Magazine ranked New York City the nation's second-worst "nanny-state city" (behind San Francisco) when it comes to dietary fascism and the Big Apple is out to regain its #1 ranking.
