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18 Apr 2007 01:32 pm

Trans-fats for Thee, But Not for Me

[Reihan] I'm obsessed with Chipotle, like many of you. (Specifically, I'm mad about the vegetarian burrito bol. I find tattoos garish and unsightly, but I have considered tattooing a stylized burrito bol across my back. Not really.) And while I'm in Chipotle, there are few things I enjoy more than thumbing through The Northwest Current, a neighborhood paper. The Washington I know is a transient town, and the neighborhood paper makes me feel like the one of Upper Northwest's respectable burghers (which, suffice to say, I am not). Recently I read a short piece on Councilmember Mary Cheh's efforts to impose a trans-fat ban. Now, I don't have the article in front of me, but I was particularly struck by one aspect of the legislation: groups that serve food for free to the very poor are exempt from the ban. And so it seems that the non-poor, those of us who can for the most part choose what we eat, are no longer allowed to consume trans-fats. But those who have far less of a choice ... are to be served foods rich in these supposedly deadly particles of doom? 

Surely there's something wrong here. I have to assume this has something to do with easing the financial burden on charitable groups, and yet wouldn't we be better served by allowing middle-class Washingtonians to look after themselves and use a small slice of our general revenue to provide food banks with slightly more nutritious fare? Or am I missing something?

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