Chicago Weighs New Prohibition: Bad-for-You Fats

The New York Times reports:

Edward M. Burke, who has served on the Chicago City Council since 1969, when cooking oil was just cooking oil, is pressing his colleagues to make it illegal for restaurants to use oils that contain trans fats, which have been tied to a string of health problems, including clogged arteries and heart attacks.

If approved, nutrition experts say, the ban will be the first in a major city, following the lead of towns like Tiburon, Calif., just north of San Francisco, where restaurant owners have voluntarily given up the oils. In truth, while the proposal's prospects are uncertain, Chicago officials have been on a bit of a banning binge these days in what critics mock as City Hall's effort to micromanage residents' lives in mundane ways.

The aldermen voted in April to forbid restaurants to sell foie gras. They have weighed a proposal to force cabbies to dress better. And there is talk of an ordinance to outlaw smoking at the beach.

A city that can't run a public school system is going to tell you how to take care of yourself.Remember Ed Burke worked with "made member" of the Chicago Mob, the late Alderman Fred Roti, to ban guns.No word yet on why Houston,where you can own a gun,has a lower murder rate than Chicago.