There were recent reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is going to attempt to ban trans fat.  From a personal standpoint, I believe that trans fats are generally harmful to people’s health and they should be avoided as best as possible.  With that said, I am also a libertarian who believes in voluntary choice.

There are so many things wrong with this, it is hard to know where to start.

First, how did the FDA ever get the power to do something like this.  This whole thing provides a perfect example of where the government has gone completely wrong.  The FDA should not have the arbitrary power to create new laws and regulations.  This is the same with any of the other agencies of the government.

That is why I support the Write the Laws Act, sponsored by DownsizeDC.org.  Congress should not be delegating their authority to other bureaucrats, who are basically completely unaccountable.  If a terrible law is going to be passed, it should at least be done by the people who supposedly represent you in Congress.

Second, this is obviously a moral outrage for anyone who has a libertarian streak.  It doesn’t matter if trans fat is harmful.  Smoking can be harmful too.  Drinking alcohol can be harmful.  Eating too much pasta can be harmful.  Skydiving can be harmful.  This doesn’t mean any of this should be banned.  Consenting adults should be able to do what they want as long as they are not infringing on others.

Third, supporting this FDA move could be really dangerous in setting a future precedent.  In the article linked, there is one particular sentence that really caught my attention.  It says, “Trans fat is widely considered the worst kind for your heart, even worse than saturated fat, which can also contribute to heart disease.”

This is just terrible science and the government and the establishment are full of junk science.  While I agree that trans fat is bad, saturated fat is not.  In fact, saturated fat is quite beneficial and plays a vital role in keeping the human body healthy.  I specifically try to eat foods high in saturated fat for the benefits.

If you disagree with me on saturated fat, that is your right to do so.  But are you going to tell the FDA to ban saturated fat next?  Don’t try to shove your faulty science down my throat.

And this leads to point number four, which is, who gets to decide?  Why do the bureaucrats at the FDA get to decide what I can and can’t put into my body?  What makes them so special?  In fact, they have an incentive to help their friends who lobby for this junk science, which often benefits pharmaceutical companies, certain food industries, etc.  Who gets to decide what is healthy and what is not?  The bureaucrats have already decided that saturated fat is bad for you and, in my opinion, they are absolutely wrong.  The information they put out on some things is not just wrong, but the opposite of right.

In conclusion, if you think it is unhealthy to eat food with trans fat and you want to avoid it, then don’t buy it and don’t eat.  But we should never advocate the use of force to impose our ways on others.  That should only be done through persuasion.