Sean's Rants

Not Worth Their Salt…

Two peanuts were walking down the road and one was a salted.

If the federal government gets its way this old joke will have no meaning to coming generations.

In an endless stream of nanny statism the Food and Drug Administration has recently announced that they are planning a crackdown on salt. In short they want to regulate the amount of salt in the food products that we buy and thereto the amount of salt that you and I consume.

Do I really think that I soon won’t be able to find my beloved grey salt, or Balinese Sea Salt, or Hawaiian Red? No. I’m fairly confident that these items will be available albeit likely to carry a special new tax designed to fund some initiative to save us all form the ravages of salt.

In truth, most of the food that I buy won’t be affected. At the center of the bull’s-eye are prepared foods in jar, box, or in the frozen aisle. I rarely buy foods in this category so why do I care?

The answers (yes I have many reasons to oppose additional government intrusion) are simple - eventually they will come for something that I do enjoy. (Oh wait… they already have.) Second, who is going to pay for this? The salt fairy? Anyone who has one eye open knows that with each new set of regulations comes another layer of beaurocracy and government work doesn’t come cheap. In fact, the worse it performs the more likely it is to demand and get more dollars from you and me.

However, these objections pale in magnitude to the core issue, which is that I should be able to eat salt until my tongue falls out if I so choose. The FDA nor any other government stiff has no right to tell me to eat or not eat any damn thing. If I want to install a giant salt lick in my dining room so be it. As I mentioned, I don’t eat a lot of heavily salted and processed packaged foods as I am fairly confident that these foods are not very good for me. Besides, I just don’t enjoy these foods. In short, I clearly believe that my approach to food and diet is sound but thankfully I do not possess the arrogance to tell what to eat and how to live your life.

Apparently, the first thing that has been regulated out of existence was memory. The FDA’s feckless “food pyramid” has been reconstructed more than Joan Rivers’ face. Eat this, don’t eat that… oh wait – skip that and eat that but never touch the stuff that we have been advocating for the past decade. These are the same people who promoted trans fats in lieu of natural fats like butter. Now trans fats are in the crosshairs. “Drop those Oreo cookies little Johnnie, the FDA is at the door.”

I can here some of you now, “but this is for everyone’s benefit, for our health.” Some will even go as far as to say, “sure this is a bit over-the-top but it’s better to get people to eat right so we don’t get saddled with their hefty medical bills later.” Be warned that if you tell me this I will immediately look to your cheek to get a better look at the hook that is surely firmly set there. Once the citizenry has bought into the concept of a collective moral and fiscal responsibility that supercedes personal responsibility, choice, and liberty the ruling class has been given carte blanche to tell us when it’s bedtime.

Wake up and smell the coffee before they take that away too.