EXPERTS FRY PROPOSED BAN ON FAT

The New York Post reports:

any health experts aren't as convinced as Mayor Bloomberg that restaurant foods containing trans fats should be banned.

And don't get beefy Chicago Mayor Richard Daley started. While Bloomberg's Health Department is pushing for a trans-fat ban in Big Apple eateries, Daley is fighting a similar effort in the Windy City.

"Let's talk about good eating habits, but not to start outlawing," he said during a recent PBS interview. "And if we start going in that direction, we'll all be eating carrots and tofu."

The debate will really start sizzling as Bloomberg's Health Department holds a hearing on the proposed ban Oct. 30.

Sure, health experts agree that trans fats increase the risk of heart disease by clogging arteries and boosting "bad" cholesterol.

The National Academies' Institute of Medicine, a scientific group that advises the federal government on health issues, issued a 2002 report warning consumers there is "no safe level" of trans fat, and urged them to eat as little as possible.

But the report opposed a ban as "impractical" because trans fats are in many types of food, and such a restriction would make it "extremely difficult to get a nutritionally adequate diet."

City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden noted the proposed ban covers only manufactured trans fats, like partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, margarines and shortenings - and that natural oils and fats for cooking are available at comparable prices.

Maybe NYC should ban public schools because they are unhealthy places for good students to spend time.