Walter E. Williams: Banning trans fats is just the beginning

In the wake of New York City?s ban on restaurant use of trans fats, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the ban is “not going to take away anybody?s ability to go out and have the kind of food they want, in the quantities they want. … We are just trying to make food safer.”

That, my friends, is tyrannical double-talk. Let?s look at it. Trans fats are derived from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. They can raise blood levels of LDL, the “bad cholesterol.” According to Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of American Council on Science and Health, trans fats are about two percent of our daily caloric intake, while saturated fats, whichalso raise LDL blood levels, make up 10 to 15 percent.