FAT BAN

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York on Tuesday became the first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging artificial trans fats at restaurants, leading the charge to limit consumption of an ingredient linked to heart disease and used in everything from french fries to pizza dough to pancake mix.

When I first learned of this new ban proposal, I didn't feel anger or joy, only confusion. Great- New Yorkers, famous for their restaurant food penchant as well as for their neurosis, will be able to feel a little bit healthier and a little more in control of what goes into their bodies when they eat out.

But banning transfats, to me, is a drop in the bucket. Sure, in the quest for improving the state of America's health, you have to start somewhere. But transfats aren't the issue but rather, a biproduct of a larger socioeconomic consumption dynamic that needs to be fixed.

This ban seems to be directed towards improving the healthfulness of fast food- McDonald's, KFC, etc. But for New Yorkers that make at least a decent living and eat at McDonald's once a year when on a road trip, or even once a month, the effects of the transfat ban are rendered obselete.

It is the New Yorkers at lower socio-economic levels who are eating from these cheap, low-quality food establishments on a regular basis. Take out the transfats from their fast food and they are still consuming- daily!- high fat meals that are poor in nutrition. But the food tastes good and it is really affordable, so they keep going back. It is a viscious cycle.

To me, that what really needs to change is eating behaviors. And changing behaviors comes from education. We (the people) need to educate ourselves on what is good and what is bad for us. We need to take some responsibility for managing our own personal health and also make strides to help those without the means to manage their own health better. No amount of legislation is going to save us- nor is any company- if we don't want to save ourselves.

Ponderings over a Tuna Fish Sandwich

Studies have proved it, but we all inherently know it- memories can quickly be triggered by a simple sensory experience.

Here I am eating a tuna fish sandwich, the anchoring element of my homemade lunch today (boring, I know). While I’ve progressed from Miracle Whip to Hellman’s and to brown bread versus white, the moment that I bit into it, I was transported back 25 years- to the Friday afternoons when I used to eat tuna fish sandwiches with my beloved cleaning lady and baby-sitter Margie, after I came home from morning sessions of Kindergarten.

Margie never really did much eating- she is a tiny bird of a thing and to this day prefers cigarettes to nutritional sustenance- but she would sit with me as I ate and lovingly watched reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Back then, I used to want to be a cleaning lady when I grew up, just like Margie. But as I reflect on my life trajectory now, as an actual grown up, I wonder how much I was actually influenced by Mary Richards, the main character of the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Mary was a single woman in her 30s who moved to the big city of Minneapolis to “make it on her own”. While in this day and age, that doesn’t sound like such a big deal, it was a big deal indeed back in the 70’s when the show ran. Mary was the epitome of an independent woman and a type of character that hadn’t yet been depicted yet on TV.

Flash forward to the premiere of “Sex and the City” in the late 90s, which resonated so strongly with young, independent women from all walks of life. I wonder if this show - which I also loved so dearly - wasn’t just picking up from where Mary left off. What is interesting is that while Mary didn't define herself by finding "Mr. Right" (http://www.museum.tv/archives), at least 2 of the main characters in Sex & the City were all about finding a man (Carrie and Charlotte). Perhaps because they had already proven that they could make it on their own and be successful within their respective careers, going back to square one - finding a man - became their new frontier. Another thought is that perhaps the four female leads on S&C together represent the varying, often paradoxical, facets of being a liberated, powerful women in a big city in the new Millenium.