6-13-06 Let's Pullet
The "Center for Science in the Public Interest" has decided that Kentucky Fried Chicken sells fried chicken with too much trans fat. So, they're suing the Colonel to end the use of the offending oil...
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060613/BUSINESS04/60613022/1001/NEWS
About five years or so ago, I noticed a trend in this area's restaurants regarding deep fat fried foods. This trend was a switch to peanut oil (I think it was peanut oil...) because it was healthier. It's the trans fat thing.
Restaurant after restaurant made this switch, and it got harder and harder (along with people's arteries, we have to assume) to find the places that hadn't made this change. The problem for me, y'see, was the simple fact that I didn't like the way things tasted when they were cooked in the "healthier" oil.
Fried clams, fish and chips, "original recipe" KFC, and so on... these are all options you can make in the basic activity of "eating for fun" in the "fried foods" arena.
There's a thing we have here in America that we've tended to export all over the world, and that's the "eating for fun" thing. There's millions of people in the world who are, quite literally, starving to death. But here in America, we can "eat for fun". It's a thing you can do in your spare time. And I'll be the last one to claim that I don't enjoy this pastime.
There's all sorts of different "fun foods" that are, essentially, not really food. The nutritional value of, for instance, fried clams is probably negated by the trans fats and whatever other nasty non-nutrients go into making this particular dish taste so great to me. Candy, most "fast foods", drive thru coffee, soda, donuts, and all sorts of other stuff that's fun to eat are all pretty much not really food. You could probably survive on these things, but you'll end up living a shorter life and getting sicker than you would have if you had been eating "real" food instead.
You get the general idea, I'm sure.
Well, one day back during that period when the restaurants were changing over to peanut oil, and right after the area's premiere summer grease-pit that sold the greatest fried clams aorund had gone over, my wife and I decided to go to the best seafood restaurant in town to get some of the second best fried clams. And, of course, that was the day that we discovered that THIS restaurant had ALSO gone over to peanut oil.
YECCCH!
While I was fuming over this, the owner happened to walk by, so I called him over.
"Did you change to peanut oil?" I asked him.
And he cheerfully explained how they had, and how much healthier the fried foods would be from now on.
"If I wanted a healthy meal, I wouldn't be ordering fried clams..." I said.
This, basically, is my only argument. There's "fun foods" and then there's foods that you can eat to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Intelligent people can consciously make a choice.
The problem, apparently, is that groups such as the "Center for Science in the Public Interest" appear to operate upon the premise that most Americans are too stupid to realize the difference between "fun foods" and real foods. So, upon that basis (we have to assume), they're suing Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Once it's established that, for instance, the tobacco companies can be sued for making people (who use their products) sick, everything else is a target for litigation. (Does this mean that I can sue the congress for "making me sick"?)
So what's next? Is somebody going to sue Hershey's for making them fat?
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060613/BUSINESS04/60613022/1001/NEWS
About five years or so ago, I noticed a trend in this area's restaurants regarding deep fat fried foods. This trend was a switch to peanut oil (I think it was peanut oil...) because it was healthier. It's the trans fat thing.
Restaurant after restaurant made this switch, and it got harder and harder (along with people's arteries, we have to assume) to find the places that hadn't made this change. The problem for me, y'see, was the simple fact that I didn't like the way things tasted when they were cooked in the "healthier" oil.
Fried clams, fish and chips, "original recipe" KFC, and so on... these are all options you can make in the basic activity of "eating for fun" in the "fried foods" arena.
There's a thing we have here in America that we've tended to export all over the world, and that's the "eating for fun" thing. There's millions of people in the world who are, quite literally, starving to death. But here in America, we can "eat for fun". It's a thing you can do in your spare time. And I'll be the last one to claim that I don't enjoy this pastime.
There's all sorts of different "fun foods" that are, essentially, not really food. The nutritional value of, for instance, fried clams is probably negated by the trans fats and whatever other nasty non-nutrients go into making this particular dish taste so great to me. Candy, most "fast foods", drive thru coffee, soda, donuts, and all sorts of other stuff that's fun to eat are all pretty much not really food. You could probably survive on these things, but you'll end up living a shorter life and getting sicker than you would have if you had been eating "real" food instead.
You get the general idea, I'm sure.
Well, one day back during that period when the restaurants were changing over to peanut oil, and right after the area's premiere summer grease-pit that sold the greatest fried clams aorund had gone over, my wife and I decided to go to the best seafood restaurant in town to get some of the second best fried clams. And, of course, that was the day that we discovered that THIS restaurant had ALSO gone over to peanut oil.
YECCCH!
While I was fuming over this, the owner happened to walk by, so I called him over.
"Did you change to peanut oil?" I asked him.
And he cheerfully explained how they had, and how much healthier the fried foods would be from now on.
"If I wanted a healthy meal, I wouldn't be ordering fried clams..." I said.
This, basically, is my only argument. There's "fun foods" and then there's foods that you can eat to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Intelligent people can consciously make a choice.
The problem, apparently, is that groups such as the "Center for Science in the Public Interest" appear to operate upon the premise that most Americans are too stupid to realize the difference between "fun foods" and real foods. So, upon that basis (we have to assume), they're suing Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Once it's established that, for instance, the tobacco companies can be sued for making people (who use their products) sick, everything else is a target for litigation. (Does this mean that I can sue the congress for "making me sick"?)
So what's next? Is somebody going to sue Hershey's for making them fat?
posted by Jeff Barnard at 6:18 PM
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