More on the New York City Food Nazis

From the Lew Rockwell blog comes this account of another government power grab. 

The New York City Food Nazis are at it again. They are enacting a bogus restaurant hygiene grading system to “alert” the sheeple diners about the hygienic “qualities” of each restaurant in NYC. There is some good news though: They are using Lew Rockwell’s…er, I mean Karen DeCoster’s…er, I mean Walter Block’s…er, I mean Bill Anderson’s…er, I mean Wilt Alston’s…er, I mean my subjective standards as to what level of hygiene is acceptable for their grading system.

Well said, sir.  One of the first things that you learn in food service, or retail is that not everyone grew up in your mother's house.  "Clean" is one of the most subjective concepts out there.  The Whited Mama didn't have the cleanest kitchen in north Mississippi, but any time somebody was invited to show up for dinner, they found a way to make it on time.  Heck, a lot of people showed up when they weren't invited. 

Now let’s look at my subjective food hygiene standards for a moment. I GUARANTEE YOU that many of you would not find the cleanliness level of my kitchen very appetizing, yet I cook and eat in it every day—and I’m in great health. So my question to myself (and to you) is this: How do I know that if a NYC restaurant does not achieve the top letter rating of A, but a B or a C, that that particular restaurant might still be a more hygienic environment to eat in than my own kitchen? I don’t—and that’s my point. This is just another power grab on the part of the gunvernment to make the sheeple feel more “safe” now that they will “know” the hygienic quality of a restaurant that they may choose to patronize (based on, of course, the subjective standard of some Health Department bureaucRAT).

Precisely.  If the bureaucRAT in question doesn't like the owner, the cashier, the prices, or the politics of the establishment being investigated for heresy, there is no way that the bureaucRAT won't find something to downgrade.  You can find germs in a surgery center if you look hard enough. 

Okay, I’m wrong. The truth is that before this letter grading system was adopted in New York City there have been millions ofthundreds of thousands ofttens of thousands oftthousands ofthundreds of restaurant patrons dying every second minute hour day week month year…hold on a minute. You’ll notice in the linked news article that there is NO MENTION of any outbreak of food poisoning or food-related deaths that has even prompted this new restaurant hygiene grading system.

But think of the "jobs created or saved" in the Food Nazi Bureacracy. 

If this new ridiculous Food Nazi tactic doesn’t put some restaurants out of business, I GUARANTEE YOU that at the very least it will force some restaurants to waste money on unnecessary “improvements” to their restaurants to be in accordance with the “higher” standards of the NYC Food Nazis—money that could have been spent in a productive manner somewhere else.

But here's the real kicker.  Advocates of the Grocery Gestapo will tell you that trained professionals are needed to protect the ignorant public from spending their money in an unsafe place.  They'll tell you that government knows best about where you should eat, and what you should eat.  Remember, NYC is the place working on a salt ban in restaurants. 
They know what's best for you.
But which restaurant are you more likely to choose?  The "C"-rated establishment with a line out the door?  Or the place that's been given an "A" for showing a civil-service lifer what he wants to see? 

Please allow me to beat the rotting corpse of this dead horse just one more time.  I'm speaking as someone who has lost almost 50 pounds by ignoring our government's most famous piece of health advice.  (Well, maybe the anti-smoking messages are more famous, but most of those were published, by government decree, on the cig packs by their manufacturers.) 
Suppliers of gut-busting foods loved this little chart.  Loved it, loved it, loved it.  And it will kill you.  It may have caused more diabetes than the sugar industry. 

See the tag at the base of the pyramid, where Uncle Sam is recommending that you have 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta?  Do you remember seeing that on all your packages of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta?  And if you ate bread, cereal, rice and pasta in those quantities, do you remember getting fatter than the Sunday newspaper? 
But no one questioned it for years.  It was the government telling us what is best, and what they thought was best reflected what The Farm Lobby produced.  But after a few decades of increased heart attacks, plus pressure from health groups, the government decided it was time for a new set of recommendations. 
The new nazi-nanny guidelines look like this.  They kept the pyramid shape for sentimental reasons. 

Here's a guy called the Baltimore Health Coach, explaining what all they got wrong this time, and why:

1. Nobody needs to eat dairy, EVER, and many are better off NOT eating it at all.

2. Processed grain foods, even the whole grain versions, are at best a food to limit, and at worst a lead contributor to chronic and degenerative diseases.

3. The under-consumption of omega 3 fatty acids and over-consumption of omega 6 fatty acids (in the supposedly “heart healthy” vegetable oils like soy and corn oil) is clearly a major a contributor to disease.

4. No distinction is made about quality. This is especially damaging when it comes to meat, eggs and dairy. Experts in the health food world disagree about the place of animal foods, but all agree that factory-farmed animal foods are highly toxic.

5. Everyone has a different style of metabolism and requires a different ratio of fat, protein and carbohydrate. The 2005 pyramid is STILL one-size-fits-all.

6. Sweet fruits like apples, oranges and bananas are way over-emphasized as health foods. There is plenty of nutrition in them, but they are also high in sugar and should NOT be so heavily relied upon. This may surprise you, but many populations that have had incredible health thrived on little to no fruit at all.

7. Saturated fats in high quality butter and eggs, coconut, avocado and palm oil ARE healthy and should especially be consumed by children.

But why does the government put out bad advice?  Why issue these food fatwahs at all, if they aren't 100% sure?
Here's the Baltimore Health Coach again:

The USDA Food Pyramid STINKS because of the MAJOR influence of the food industry lobby. The USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the “unpaid” group of volunteers responsible for the Food Pyramid, have consistently been in bed with (i.e. ex-board members or recipients of grants) organizations like:


The National Dairy Council
The National Dairy Promotion and Research Program
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
The American Egg Board
The American Meat Institute Committee
The Dannon Research Institute, Inc.,
The Sugar Association
Grocery Manufacturers

Plus....

Just look at agricultural subsidies to see where the government’s loyalty lies. $15 billion in subsidies go to the soy and corn mega-farms that make the processed and fast food industries boom. Close to ZERO money is given to support fruit and vegetable farmers. Hmm…

Yes.  Hmm.....
In closing, think back to the new New York City cleanliness inspectors.  Do you think there might be some cleaning supply companies lobbying for that program?  Do you think there might be some politically connected restauranteurs who want to see that pesky upstart deli down the street given a "C" ??   And do you think the citizens of NYC will take this like a bunch of compliant little sheep? 

Yes, yes, and yes. 

The picture of the redneck kitchen came from here.