Lies the government told you by Andrew Napolitano (big screen ebook reader .TXT) 📕

alcohol, the latter can also be harmful, and outlawing something because it may harm the user leads straight down the logical garden path to our totalitarian cage, where people are prohibited from eating candy and are forced to eat yogurt “for their own good.”1

This totalitarian cage Rothbard described is already looming on the horizon. And some cages are already here.

The Oreo Police

In late 2006, New York City established laws banning trans fat, a type of unsaturated fat, from all city restaurants, as well as creating a requirement that fast-food restaurants post calorie counts alongside menus and other food offerings. Subsequently, several other governments have passed similar legislation, including the entire State of California, several Massachusetts cities, and some upstate counties in New York. Trans fat has been linked to heart disease and was commonly used to prepare fried and baked foods.

While many of us would agree that foods laden with trans fats are not a healthy option and should not be consumed in large quantities, shouldn’t we be able to make that choice? Decisions about what we feed our children and ourselves are exceptionally personal and certainly should not be subject to government paternalism. These policies treat Americans as babies who cannot be trusted to make decisions regarding what goes into their own mouths and the mouths of their children. This government-knows-best attitude is nowhere grounded in the Constitution and is profoundly offensive to the Natural Law. So while it may seem that we are free to eat what we want, the government is duping us by taking many food choices off of shelves and menus or adversely influencing our choices. Like parents hiding Halloween candy from their child, the government is hiding choices from us. Except, we’re not children and the government has no lawful authority to act as our parent.

Besides stripping us of our rights, do these health-police food policies even make us healthier? Learning to choose healthful foods amidst other choices is one of the ways people learn to take care of themselves. By eliminating variety, it may lead people to believe that they no longer need to be vigilant or even responsible in making decisions about what goes into their bodies. Why bother, when you can have the government do that instead? In taking away foods that contain trans fat, the government is not making the store shelves “safe” but it could create that mistaken impression in the minds of some consumers; there are still plenty of foods out there that could have a detrimental effect on a person’s health. Indeed, countless food items and behaviors could have an injurious effect on your health if you never learn moderation.

The health police want to destroy your freedom of choice, and their tactics are not likely to improve health. Even the New York Times has a problem with all this. A December 2008 Times article argued that the “health halo” created by trans fat–free foods and other types of foods that claim to be more healthful are actually helping to keep us fat.2 The theory goes that because we think that foods are made more healthful through these policies, we let our guard down and tend to eat more. Consequently, we don’t actually become thinner or healthier as a result of these policies that cost taxpayers loads of money, deprive us of our rights, and make insulting assumptions about our decision-making abilities.

Health policies like the trans fat ban can work to put small mom-and-pop stores out of business. When the trans fat ban was first proposed, much of the opposition came from small business owners who would be required to do extra clerical work and spend money in the conversion process. Restaurants and bakeries also had to figure out how to re-create many of their recipes to make them taste good without the use of these fats. For instance, Stuart Zaro, president of Zaro’s Bakery in New York, revealed that there was about a 20 percent increase in the cost of baking without trans fats. Additionally, bakeries are now forced to fill out sheets detailing the ingredients used in preparation of the food. As the economy worsens, we need to ask whether these policies causing many small local businesses and national chains to spend large amounts of money are really helping anyone.3

Also questionable is whether government interference was even needed to curb consumer use of trans fats since in recent years many companies and restaurants have been cutting down on or eliminating the use of trans fats due to consumer demand. It turns out that many Americans already knew to avoid trans fat–laden foods even before the government forced us to stop eating them.

The government’s paternalistic nature toward its people is in no danger. The Obama administration appears to be moving full steam ahead in this government-knows-best direction. In May 2009, for instance, President Obama appointed Thomas Frieden, M.D., as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.4 Dr. Frieden is the former New York City Health Commissioner, and held that post when New York City established the bans on trans fats and smoking in bars and restaurants.

On June 22nd 2009, President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate the tobacco industry. The Act gives the FDA the power to regulate tobacco ingredients, cap nicotine levels, and control advertising.5 In fact, regular cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco are the only tobacco products off-limits to the FDA.6 Unfortunately, we have learned over the years that when Congress grants virtually unlimited power to government agencies, they feel a pressing need to use it in the most foolish, yet ambitious ways possible.

On September 22nd 2009, the FDA exercised its authority under the Act and banned the sale of flavored cigarettes. The FDA argued that these products attract children and teenagers to smoking, and act as a gateway for young people to become habitual smokers.7 Like the trans fat ban, this regulation removes individual