You have probably read by now that Denmark has introduced a fat tax. The ambiguity in that sentence is deliberate. The tax will be levied on all foods with a saturated fat content above 2.3%. The assessment is 16 Danish kroner per kilogram of saturated fat, which works out to about $6.27 per pound—a pretty hefty amount.
Now that the international Food Police have established a beachhead, concerns are being voiced elsewhere, including here at home. Could the U.S be next? During the U.N. General Assembly summit on non-communicable diseases—a discussion that included diet and eating habits—renowned medical researcher and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opined that
governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option. That is ultimately government’s highest duty.
Well, there you have it—and from the man who claimed a few years ago that global warming is the biggest threat that humans face.
Bloomberg’s wish to make government the ultimate arbiter of what its “subjects” eat is nothing new. He has long been an advocate of taking the salt shaker out of the hands of American eaters. Nor is he alone in his effort to expand the reach of the nanny state. Under the watchful eye of First Lady Michelle Obama (who shares the mayor’s medical training), the government has attempted to crack down on pernicious food advertising.
It has long been the position of this commentator that the American people need to take responsibility for their own health, a first step toward which is self-education. Yet, a story that appears in today’s New York Post suggests that perhaps Joe and Josephine Public are not quite up to that daunting task.
The story chronicles the rise in public fear of gluten, which appears to be on the verge of becoming the next MSG. (Briefly, for those who missed the MSG scare, a medical researcher from China working in the U.S. experienced a negative reaction to Chinese food prepared in American restaurants. In 1968, he wrote a letter The New England Journal of Medicine in which he theorized that monosodium glutamate, or MSG, might be the culprit. Despite research over the next several decades demonstrating that no statistical correlation could be drawn between MSG and “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” as the phenomenon came to be called, the myth endures to this day).
And now it has company. Meet the gluten hoax. As the Post reports, gluten-free diets are on the rise, and so are gluten-free menu options in restaurants all over the nation.
This is not to make light of celiac disease—an autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten, the protein found in grains—or of the roughly 1 percent of the population afflicted with it. But as the article notes:
[A]n increasing number of [consumers] who don’t have a medical excuse to ditch gluten are also declaring it public enemy No. 1. These days, you can’t throw a bread roll without hitting someone who has cut gluten out of their [sic] diet for health or diet reasons.
The writers quotes Zagat Survey co-chair Nina Zagat, who added a gluten-free category to the company’s guidebook because of consumer demand, as saying:
It’s a major issue. I’ve heard anecdotally that some people are eating gluten-free because they think it may be healthier in general.
It is not. Gluten is the “ingredient” that gives rustic breads their chewy quality. If you have not been officially diagnosed with celiac, there is no reason for you to deny yourself that simple pleasure. Unless of course you have convinced yourself that eating grain makes you sick.
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