I think if governmental agencies want to start cutting out unhealthy ingredients from our food, they should start with packaging plants.
That said, I'm all for forcing restaurants to cut the crap
Hydrogenated oils, salts, trans fats, etc shouldn't be used by restaurants. They're a cheap alternative to healthier options. But then, I also think restaurants should have to serve normal portion sizes too. Serving actual portion sizes while reducing crap, filler ingredients would balance the cost of using real ingredients.
In the fifties, so many horrid things started being added to foods in an effort to get the consumer to buy more and to help the companies make big profits. The bottom line was profits. High fructose corn syrup is one of the number one causes of the diabetes and obesity dilemmas in this country. The over sodium-zation of food products again is all about profits for big corporations, and it has lead to unhealthy population. Very FEW restaurants NEED to use salt in their recipes. Most restaurants don't use the highest quality products...ergo, there's already plenty of salt in the ingredients they use. They add it, not necessarily because it's NEEDED in the recipe, but because Americans are soooooooo over-sodium-ed that people would think the food 'tastes bland' if the restaurants didn't use salt. Personally, I find it pretty disgusting that Americans are so over-saturated in the chemicals which are added to their foods that they can't taste the crap anymore. Americans can't taste the salt that's added to everything from sodas to chicken breasts. They can't taste the high fructose corn syrup (I have a personal vengeance against hfcs) that forces them to eat more and more. They can't taste the hydrogenated oils that sit in and clog up their arteries until their bodies just explode.
It's just disgusting to me. And what's more disgusting to me is the fact that Americans are so unhappy about giving them up. These products weren't introduced to American taste-buds because they're delicious and good for us...we were introduced to them, so companies could make exorbitant profits off of our (dead) bodies.
Yeah, something *should* be done to eradicate these items from our food. The LAST thing people need from a restaurant (rarely serving fresh food) is MORE salt.
My Two Nickels,
Dylan
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