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Because substance A is taken willingly and knowingly and has no realistic substitute. Substance B is slipped to consumers unknowingly in many cases and there ar

Because substance A is taken willingly and knowingly and has no realistic substitute. Substance B is slipped to consumers unknowingly in many cases and there are plenty of cheap healthy substitutes. Alcohol and Transfats are apples and oranges.

ams6110 11y ago
Trans fat content is listed on EVERY nutrition label, by law.
- saturdaysaint 11y ago
  Right, and you can read it on the wall of any fast food restaurant... but tell me when the last time you've seen someone read that. It's fair for regulators to take into account people's actual behavior.
  - ams6110 11y ago
    GP claimed it was "slipped in unknowingly" which is false. Anyone who has paid any attention to the media the past few years knows that trans fat is now thought to be bad (never mind that in previous decades it was considered to be healthy, or at least "less bad" than saturated fat). I actually do look at trans fat content on the labels quite often. The labels are very simple, it's not like a terms of service that's highly verbose and deliberatly obfuscatory. If you want to avoid trans-fat, it's trivially easy.
  - tertius 11y ago
    The same thing can be said for alcohol. These facts aren't hidden.
- jrs235 11y ago
  I thought they can label things as 0g Trans fat or even not list it so long as there is less than .5 grams per serving. Looks like my thoughts were somewhat correct, at least at some time (August 2003 until ???), scroll to #6: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm053479.htm http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocuments... EDIT: typos
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- cheshire137 11y ago
  Sure, but there are tons of products that list '0 trans fat' while also listing partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients. The FDA allows a certain amount of trans fat while letting the company claim 0 trans fat. Then the Bloomberg article says "The FDA said it hasn’t seen any data to prove that even low levels of partially hydrogenated oils are safe."
T3RMINATED 11y ago
No one is forcing your fat kid to eat McDonalds. Learn how to Cook.
CWuestefeld 11y ago
But the federal government has banned marijuana, which is arguably much safer than alcohol, and a potential substitute. In fact, they've banned to such a degree that for most purposes even scientific research on it is illegal. It really does seem arbitrary, and once the arbitrary decision is made, all bridges are burned and we commit ourselves 100% to the capricious decision.
- rwallace 11y ago
  A lot of this is arbitrary and capricious, but banning marijuana is so blatantly stupid that there is actually some movement of late to reverse the ban.

ams6110 11y ago

Trans fat content is listed on EVERY nutrition label, by law.

saturdaysaint 11y ago
Right, and you can read it on the wall of any fast food restaurant... but tell me when the last time you've seen someone read that. It's fair for regulators to take into account people's actual behavior.
- ams6110 11y ago
  GP claimed it was "slipped in unknowingly" which is false. Anyone who has paid any attention to the media the past few years knows that trans fat is now thought to be bad (never mind that in previous decades it was considered to be healthy, or at least "less bad" than saturated fat). I actually do look at trans fat content on the labels quite often. The labels are very simple, it's not like a terms of service that's highly verbose and deliberatly obfuscatory. If you want to avoid trans-fat, it's trivially easy.
- tertius 11y ago
  The same thing can be said for alcohol. These facts aren't hidden.
jrs235 11y ago
I thought they can label things as 0g Trans fat or even not list it so long as there is less than .5 grams per serving. Looks like my thoughts were somewhat correct, at least at some time (August 2003 until ???), scroll to #6: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm053479.htm http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocuments... EDIT: typos
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
cheshire137 11y ago
Sure, but there are tons of products that list '0 trans fat' while also listing partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients. The FDA allows a certain amount of trans fat while letting the company claim 0 trans fat. Then the Bloomberg article says "The FDA said it hasn’t seen any data to prove that even low levels of partially hydrogenated oils are safe."

T3RMINATED 11y ago

No one is forcing your fat kid to eat McDonalds. Learn how to Cook.

CWuestefeld 11y ago

But the federal government has banned marijuana, which is arguably much safer than alcohol, and a potential substitute. In fact, they've banned to such a degree that for most purposes even scientific research on it is illegal. It really does seem arbitrary, and once the arbitrary decision is made, all bridges are burned and we commit ourselves 100% to the capricious decision.

rwallace 11y ago
A lot of this is arbitrary and capricious, but banning marijuana is so blatantly stupid that there is actually some movement of late to reverse the ban.