By Darren Mcvey
As a commuter student not bound to the bad food and overbearing meal plan that resident students endure, my favorite morning activity consists of stopping a few blocks from campus at Nord’s Bakery for the coffee and doughnut breakfast. Nord’s is a hidden gem of Preston Street, famous for buttercream doughnuts, cheese danishes and the pancake and bacon long john. As you would imagine, I could heap praises on this Mecca of a morning sugar rush for another 500 words, if a more pressing issue weren’t at hand.
Family bakeries and local restaurants in Louisville are under attack from the health-Nazi fat police of the city government. A Courier-Journal report from Feb. 3 describes the efforts of the city council to institute a trans fat ban, prohibiting the use of trans fats at all Louisville restaurants.
The Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness task force issued a report recommending the trans fat ban, citing a reduction of heart attacks by 400 a year and a savings of $22 million in health care. A divided city council will vote on the ban later this year.
The trans fat ban would apply to partially hydrogenated fats used in fried foods, shortenings and other products. These fats are used because of their lower cost and extended shelf-life, as well as satisfying taste.
If the trans fat ban is passed and enforced, local bakeries and restaurants will be forced to use more expensive, less effective ingredients. The result will be higher prices and poorer quality, and may result in some local businesses being unable to survive.
Like most people, I could deal with paying an extra nickel or dime per doughnut, but it is disconcerting that I would be paying to make my doughnut less fluffy, less satisfying, more… healthy. I eat an apple for health; I eat a doughnut because it’s good.
In a report from John Wesley Slider of WHAS, Nord’s owner defends the use of trans fats.
“We’re selling cookies, cakes, doughnuts,” said the owner. “If they come in and they think they’re getting a health food product, they need to get something else checked. They know when they’re coming in that moderation is the key.”
This quote gets at the point of the proposed ban. In today’s America, there is a certain group of people that won’t leave us alone. They want us all to quit smoking, eat raw organic food, exercise, drive death-trap go-karts they call cars, use paper bags (or is it plastic again?); the list is endless. Not only do these miserable people try to guilt us into conforming, they now turn to the heavy hand of local urban governments to coerce us into their form of social morality.
Apart from this small group, however, are folks like me. I want to eat trans fat doughnuts, brownies and french fries. I want to drive a truck and smoke a cigar. I don’t want to eat veggies or exercise, unless it involves playing basketball. I’m healthy, happy and free. And I don’t need city council telling me what to eat, drive or think.
The threat for personal liberty posed by the trans fat ban and efforts like it are simply un-American. The Declaration of Independence states the trinity of God-given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the effort to forcibly extend our lives, the health Nazis are trying to take our liberty and my pursuit of sweet, bacon-topped, cholesterol-filled happiness.
