Neil Cavuto opened yesterday’s Your World by scaring people into believing banning trans fats is bad. “Microwave popcorn with extra butter, getting popped. A whipping for those with frostings. And frozen pizzas, stick them in the deep freeze. Don’t laugh, it just might happen. Because now Uncle Sam is poking his nose in everybody’s kitchen. This is big. Welcome everybody, I’m Neil Cavuto, and food for thought the government looking to take my frozen pizza and other goodies away. Say it ain’t so!”
Guest David McArthur, owner of McArthur’s Bakery, agreed. He said, “All those that know how we should live better than we ourselves should know how to go at it. You know, it’s one more intrusion what can I say? …Customers are going to get mad because it didn’t taste the way it used to. …The repercussions of this are huge. Cost, manufacture, it goes on and on and on, Neil. Save us from the good people.”
Cavuto warned, “The whole Pillsbury doughboy kingdom would fall apart on this right?”
Guest Derrick Kinney, private wealth advisor for Ameriprise, spoke next. What a wealth advisor has to do with banning trans fats is anyone’s guess.
Kinney said, “But here’s the issue. First, it was health care choices being limited, now we’re being told you can’t have a donut, for goodness sakes. The key here is for many small business people, it’s not about trans fat, it’s about how these communications or rather dictations are communicated and heard by Wall Street and business owners. In many cases, it appears they’re taking the ‘free’ out of free enterprise. …If they feel like they’re being told what to do, it can cause them to retaliate, shut down, or simply not produce the good and services we need most right now. This could be bad news all the way around.”
McArthur added, “The same guy that has a problem with trans fats is the same guy that’s going to McDonald’s and eating 10 quarter pounders a week Neil. …What’s amazing to me, federal government, ‘Oh, trans fats are bad, but we’re going to keep selling alcohol and tobacco.’ If we had a $3 can federal tax on Crisco, …Crisco would be fine. …It’s just more government run amok, you know, save us from the good people, who knows how I should live better than I do.” He also worked in a swipe at ObamaCare.
Cavuto chuckled appreciatively and closed by saying, “Good perspective.”
Later, Cavuto hosted Dr. Marc Siegel who seemed to talk out of both sides of his mouth. Siegel said, “Trans fats are very bad for you. I must admit, when you take vegetable oil and you add a hydrogen to it which is what a trans fat is, it goes right to the coronary artery. You end up increasing bad cholesterol and decreasing good cholesterol. …But as the gentleman just said, don’t we have a right to do that? Where is this going to end? Is it going to end with trans fats? …Seventy three percent decrease in trans fats over the past decade, and we’re only eating about one gram of it a day when we used to have four. …I think they’re going too far. …This is over the line. This is on the nanny state side of things.”
While Siegel spoke, a graphic from the FDA appeared showing a trans fat ban would prevent 7000 deaths annually, and prevent 20,000 heart attacks each year. It wasn’t addressed by the first two guests who were more worried about business freedom than health.