'Trans Fats Worse Than Al Qaeda'

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof joins the war on Big Fat.

I've been taking my daughter around the block lately, helping her unload Girl Scout cookies on obliging neighbors — and wondering whether we're killing them. The problem is that most of those Girl Scout cookies have trans fatty acids. Those are the worst kind of fat, killing far more Americans than Al Qaeda manages to. ... The Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed a petition asking the F.D.A. to require restaurants to disclose the presence of trans fats in their foods, as well as another petition that would in effect come close to banning manufactured trans fats altogether. Both moves make sense.

I'm all for truth in labeling, though I wonder if individual restaurants — especially ones whose offerings change daily — wouldn't be driven to distraction by having to constantly calculate trans-fat amounts, and having to change their printed materials accordingly. And of course, for it all to work, we'd need another bloated oversight and enforcement bureaucracy.

As for banning trans fats altogether, there's no doubt that a tofu-and-lettuce-based diet would do wonders for many people's health. Should the government make such a diet mandatory, considering that, after all, it's for our collective good?

Or might it be acceptable for citizens to make their own food choices, even ones that trade an ounce of health for a pound of pleasure?