My home city of Philadelphia has followed New York's lead and passed a bill to ban trans fats in restaurants. This is not good. Our government should not be spending its time passing bills protecting us from ourselves. It's that simple. Yeah, there is a huge weight problem in our country. But if we are to be trusted as adult citizens, we need to be trusted to proactively take care of our own health. If the city is worried about our poor eating habits, they need to focus on nutrition education and improving our access to good foods. Simply cutting people off from a certain food, however bad it is for us, is not the right way to improve our health.
I've also heard some people referring to the smoking ban like it's the same thing as the trans fat ban –- designed to protect people from themselves. I disagree. The smoking ban is more about protecting non-smokers from second-hand smoke. If you eat a cheesesteak next to me, I'm not going to accidentally inhale a glob of cheese whiz. If you smoke next to me, yeah, that's going in my lungs.
Still, I do think smokers should be allowed to smoke somewhere. I'm not saying that I think people should smoke –- it's incredibly unhealthy, and you're an idiot if you think otherwise. But as people, we own our own bodies. We should be allowed to do whatever we want with them as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. If I want to eat french fries, if I want to smoke, whatever –- I should to be allowed to do it. This sack of skin and bones is mine.
There are thousands of things that the government should be doing to help and protect its people. Taking away their fats is not one of them.