Oh Robert, Robert…

Looks like Robert DeNiro, brilliant though notoriously reclusive actor, has decided to come out and lend his voice to New York’s anti-trans fat crusade. What a shame, though he does coincidentally happen to own two restaurants that advertise zero-trans fat menus, so I guess it’s good exposure.

I hate to be a bore on this subject, and I’ll say that yes, in an ideal world we wouldn’t be eating man-made trans fats. Yet the central irony here is that the very same consumer groups who are now howling against evil trans fats are the ones responsible for popularizing them in the first place. This was back when they were howling against evil beef fat, fifteen years or so ago. And now it seems they have a real shot at getting a law against trans fats passed in New York, even without the science to show they’re either harmful or addictive (can anyone say cigarettes?).

And when, as will ineveitably happen, the new replacement fats become evil, what law will they seek to pass then?