Category Archives: Food

Consumers, FDA - Food & Drug Administration, Food, Food Police, The Heritage Foundation

FDA bans trans fats; you cannot eat what you like

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Next targets: sugar, sodium, caffeine

Homer with donut and broccoli

The mission of the FDA–Food and Drug Administration–is to protect us from unsafe foods. But the agency has re-interpreted its mission as protecting us from what they deem as “unhealthy” even if not “unsafe.”

Their newest regulation dictates that artificial trans fats must be off our grocery shelves within three years.

The FDA released a specific plan giving packaged-cookie makers, ready-made frosting producers and margarine suppliers until 2018 to eliminate the artery-clogging substance from their products. Artificial trans fats (also called “partially hydrogenated oils” typically are used for fried and baked goods.

The American Heart Association called the regulation a “historic victory for the nation’s health” that it claims could prevent up to 20,000 heart attacks each year.

Critics, however, called it a nanny-state measure. “The FDA’s role [is to] . . . make sure the ingredients of the food supply are safe. That’s different than making sure people eat something that’s healthy,” said Daren Bakst, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.  “Other ingredients are coming. That’s their intent: to go after sugar, sodium, caffeine,” he said.

Since 2006, the FDA has required companies to include trans fat content information on their nutrition labels, and many producers have eliminated trans fats altogether. The FDA estimates that consumption of trans fats fell by 78 percent from 2003 to 2012 and Americans ate about 1 gram a day on average in 2012, down from 4.6 grams in 2006. Also, are chicken wraps healthy 2 for your health? see to learn more.

HEAR Ernest’s commentary on this:

Source: FDA bans artificial trans fats from grocery shelves; critics see nanny-state overreach – Washington Times

Appliances, Automobiles, Climate Change, Consumers, Cost-of-Living, Electric Bills, Energy, Environment, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Family Budget, Food, Gasoline, Light Bulbs, Medical Costs, Transportation

Wham! Regulations sock it to consumers


Socking it to the consumerConsumer prices will increase by more than $11,000  just from 36 of the Obama Administration’s regulations, reports the American Action Forum (AAF).

It’s a wallop to the jaw for everyday people. AAF’s research finds this includes higher-priced vehicles, pricier household goods, and more expensive food. “Energy-efficiency” standards are the biggest reason for higher prices.

Of course,  politicians and bureaucrats claim they’re saving us money. So ask yourself, Have YOU saved $11,000 thanks to federal regulations?

THE GIMMICKS:

Typically, agencies speculate that IF buyers keep using the mandated energy-saving products for long enough, they eventually will have a net gain. That’s IF things don’t wear out (or a light bulb doesn’t burn out).

As The New York Times researched and reported in 2012 about automobiles, projections of fuel savings often presume that consumers will keep their cars twice as long as is normal. Plus their study presumed gasoline would cost almost $4.00 a gallon. Projected “savings” also are not offset against interest paid on loans to buy more-expensive products, nor the extra repair charges to make old things last longer.  Continue reading Wham! Regulations sock it to consumers →

Agencies, Appliances, Automobiles, CEI - Competitive Enterprise Institute, CFPB - Consumer Financial Protection Board, Christmas Lights, Consumer Products & Services, Electric Bills, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Family Budget, Food, Gasoline, Health Care, Insurance, Light Bulbs, Medical Costs, Perfume, Privacy, Window Blinds

Family budgets wrecked by runaway regulations and red tape

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Grocery shopperRunaway regulations are hurting everyday people and wrecking family budgets. It’s not big companies that suffer from the $1.88 trillion annual burden of red tape that the government imposes. They pass them along, adding the costs onto their price tags.

Unaffordable health care coverage, unaffordable electric bills, unaffordable rises in food costs, unaffordable college, and unaffordable appliances are parts of the skyrocketing burden of regulations, usually dictated from Washington.

Millions of Americans who no longer pay federal income tax nevertheless have a stake in controlling the size of government, because their family budgets are ruined by higher prices resulting from regulations. All costs of regulations are passed along by businesses owners to employees who get paid with a pay stub template software.

The average is $15,000 per household per year, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s new annual report “Ten Thousand Commandments”, with a collective cost of $1.88 trillion. Last year alone, President Obama’s hand-picked bureaucrats created $567 per person of new red tape by creating 75,000 pages of more regulations. That’s a one-year regulatory increase of over $2,000 for a household of four.

Because that overall $1.88 trillion number is too big to swallow, people need the details one bite at a time. Providing those digestible bites is the mission of Americans for Less Regulation. Many items also are posted on ALR’s Facebook site.

HOW does red tape hurt your family budget? Read more for details including:

  • Skyrocketing electric bills
  • Higher automobile prices
  • Phony claims of consumer savings
  • Appliance prices
  • Light bulbs
  • Window blinds
  • Federal snooping of your personal finances
  • Rising health care costs
Food, Food Police, Michelle Obama, School lunch, Uncategorized

Students complain: ‘First Lady messes up our lunches’

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tastes yuck

The food fight over student lunches is personal for First Lady Michelle Obama, and personal for millions of upset school children and their families.

She has told us, “My most important title is mom-in-chief,” and “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.” The First Lady’s attitude is reinforced by the regulators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, overseeing the federal School Lunch Program. They follow her bidding on extreme makeover of meals, but 1.6-million students have dropped out of the program rather than accept the new menus.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/20/istook-americas-children-dont-michelle-obamas-cook/#ixzz3cZNbqne2 
Agencies, Food, Food Police, Michelle Obama, School lunch, USDA - US Department of Agriculture

First Lady kidnaps Easter event to push food regulations

FLOTUS at lunchThe annual White House Easter Egg Roll has been politicized to re-educate children and parents. Sorry, Peter Cottontail; your event has been kidnapped. And apologies to the churches.

The 30,000 guests were told, “In addition to all of the fun, the day’s activities will encourage children to lead healthy, active lives in support of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Initiative.” In 2013, Michelle Obama proclaimed the event’s purpose was is “to celebrate nutrition and activity” and “learn about making tasty, healthy food.”

Her philosophy? “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.” That’s what the First Lady proclaimed when her husband signed the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. That act has sparked student protests across the country for changing the school lunch program to promote items that students refuse to eat. And down-sized portions.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/10/first-lady-kidnaps-easter-bunny/#ixzz3cNEozV6F
Automobiles, Consumer Products & Services, Consumers, Food, Groceries, Health Care, Insurance, Obamacare

Regulations kill diversity. Less red tape=more consumer choice

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Less red tape, more consumer choiceObamacare dictates conformity–the opposite of diversity. 

Even left-leaning Ben & Jerry’s offers more than 75 flavors of ice cream, so why must all health-care policies be uniform?

We prefer supermarkets with the biggest variety of fruits and vegetables, dozens of flavors of soda, multitudes of salad dressings, pre-sliced lunch meats that are smoked, baked, honey, oven-roasted, cured, mesquite, rotisserie, Black Forest, black pepper, or Cajun-style, in your choice of ham, chicken, turkey, beef, or mystery meat.

Government could “simplify” our lives in other ways. If Obamacare saves us from substandard insurance, wouldn’t “Obamacars” save us from substandard automobiles? And “Obamacurs” would make sure our pet dogs are only the very best breed.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/26/istook-obamacare-one-small-step-against-diversity/#ixzz3cLKFtgYt

Agencies, FDA - Food & Drug Administration, Food, Food Police

FDA’s food police slow down your pizza orders

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FDA vs pizza

With 34-million ways to mix-and-match pizza crust, sauce, cheese and toppings, how can you comply with a Food and Drug Administration mandate to list all the nutritional details–especially when you’re trying to deliver the pizza promptly?

It’s another saga in the battle between business and the federal “food police.”

Would consumers really stop and read special labels before ordering a pizza, especially if it’s during the excitement of a big game on TV?

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/11/istook-obamacare-sics-food-police-on-pizza-parlors/#ixzz3cJVoX9uQ