DOH's Heart Burn

In today's NY Post the paper reports on the testimony from the American Heart Association against the proposed ban on trans fat being proposed by the Department of Health. To say that this is counterintuitive is to underplay the incongruity of the position being taken by the association. That being said, there are a number of good points that the good doctors are making on this issue.

The Association's main point is that, in the absence of a plentiful supply of substitute ingredients, restaurants could be forced to shift to poorer substitutes. As the Post points out, "The ban could force cooks to switch from one poison to another..." In regards to this point, AHA's Megan Lozita told the Board of Health, "We are concerned that there is a potential for unintended and adverse consequences..."

Even more encouraging is that the Association is calling for the kind of collaboration that the Alliance has been advocating on this issue from the start. "The heart association's testimony said that government should make restaurants 'our partners' in the goal of reducing trans fat instead of ramming through a ban." Now let's hope that the city council understands that it is in everyone's interest for the legislature to intervene so that this partnership can be forged.