New York Proposes a "Salt Ban" in Restaurants

That's right, a salt ban in restaurants. However, chefs are calling it absurd, so at least that indicates that there are still sane people in New York...

Quote :

"No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises," the bill, A. 10129, states in part.

The legislation, which Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, introduced on March 5, would fine restaurants $1,000 for each violation.

Quote :

"The consumer needs to make their own health choices. Just as doctors and the occasional visit to a hospital can't truly control how a person chooses to maintain their health, neither can chefs nor the occasional visit to a restaurant," said Jeff Nathan, the executive chef and co-owner of Abigael's on Broadway. "Modifying trans fats and sodium intake needs to be home based for optimal health. Regulating restaurants will not solve this health issue."

I think what's bothering me so much here is that not only is salt needed in some dishes--I'm thinking cakes here, but weirdy can probably think of other dishes where it's required--but how would they even enforce this? Video cameras in the kitchens? Surprise salt raids on restaurants?

Well, thank god the government is making my decisions for me.

Fuck you, assclowns, don't fuck with my food. That's the only reason I live anymore.

I'd say "Is this what that Salt Treaty they used to talk about when I was a kid is about?", but I doubt anyone here except probably Spots would get it...

Trioculus wrote:

I'd say "Is this what that Salt Treaty they used to talk about when I was a kid is about?", but I doubt anyone here except probably Spots would get it...

*snickers*

On-topic, this is a monumentally stupid bill that doesn't have a prayer of passing let alone being signed into law. It's unenforceable for one (as Max pointed out). For another how would you distinguish food that had been salted on-site versus food that arrived pre-salted (such as cured meat or fish)?

I appreciate that some people have health conditions which require a low sodium diet to manage properly, and labelling food with its salt content along with other nutritional data is a good idea so we can make an informed choice as to what we eat, but for most people salt intake isn't an issue and banning a basic ingredient is just plain stupid.

What the hell? A lot of food tastes disgusting or bland without salt.

... wait, I thought people were joking when they said there was too much salt in American food. So what, do they use tons of salt on everything, or how can that even be a health issue?

(Yes, I know too much salt can be unhealthy, like everything. I remember a case where a stepmother made a child eat a pudding where the child had used salt instead of sugar and the child died. However, I doubt there is that much salt in any correctly prepared food.)

Fuck you, NYC, just fook yew. There's never enough salt in my food anyway; what would I have to do, carry a shaker with me everywhere I go? This would make all pasta more bland, most "southern" foods unpleasant, and make fast food restaurants take on enormous extra expense and loss of business from people needed to salt their own damn fries.

Trioculus wrote:

I'd say "Is this what that Salt Treaty they used to talk about when I was a kid is about?", but I doubt anyone here except probably Spots would get it...

I got it, but I'm a NERD.

Sandra Denton has issued a statement to say she expected it, because Cheryl James is such a messy fucking eater.

This is beyond ridiculous. You can not legislate health. Wanting consumers to make better food choices does not translate into taking the choice away from them. Yeah, good idea--wrong way to go about it.

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This is so hilariously stupid, I don't even know where to began.

Do they really want an entire industry to fall?

Actually, you need sodium to live. Much of which our bodies get from salt. My grandfather cut all salt from his diet once, and became very ill after a few months. They had to give him salt through a drip in the hospital to stabilize him.

So not only will this not help at all, it would actually be a huge danger to public health and safety.

Lysander wrote:

Actually, you need sodium to live. Much of which our bodies get from salt. My grandfather cut all salt from his diet once, and became very ill after a few months. They had to give him salt through a drip in the hospital to stabilize him.

So not only will this not help at all, it would actually be a huge danger to public health and safety.

Um, only if they eat exclusively at restaurants.

Salt plays a chemical role in the making of a lot of foods. Bread, for one. Without it, bread is impossible.

FUCK YEAH NO MORE BREAD.

A ban on salt is just plain stupid. I appreciate that some people have to limit their sodium intake, but those people can make informed choices about what to eat with advice from a doctor or dietician. I guess that means that restraunts selling crisps (americans call them potato chips) wouldn't be allowed to any more because they contain salt? Epic fail. The state has no right to tell people what they may and may not consume, if it is a free country then that also includes the freedom to choose what to eat.

Oh dear, salt is also in eggs. Goodbye, eggs. You had a good run.

Let's have a moment of silence.

Lysander wrote:

Actually, you need sodium to live. Much of which our bodies get from salt.

Yes, this. Also, most salt nowadays is supplemented with iodine because of mass health issues in the past with iodine deficiencies. Everything in moderation, people.

Trioculus wrote:

I'd say "Is this what that Salt Treaty they used to talk about when I was a kid is about?", but I doubt anyone here except probably Spots would get it...

They kept going about the Salt 2 Treaty, when I was a kid, but never got round to signing it, did they...

in b4 Cyberwulf calls you all elitist shitgobblers because only someone who hates poor people would oppose bans on salt.

Or whatever retarded shit she came up with last time this was brought up.

Banning it in restaurants is just aiming at the wrong place. Cut down on salt in the manufactured foods that need it, but not in restaurants. =/

TheHedonist wrote:

Lysander wrote:

Actually, you need sodium to live. Much of which our bodies get from salt. My grandfather cut all salt from his diet once, and became very ill after a few months. They had to give him salt through a drip in the hospital to stabilize him.

So not only will this not help at all, it would actually be a huge danger to public health and safety.

Um, only if they eat exclusively at restaurants.

´T is New York. Don´t you watch Sex & the City?
(Unless, y'know, the proposal excludes 'take-out' and 'fast-food' from being a restaurant.)

Table salt: White poison the problem with salt is not him; salt but adapts; state of the salt which we eat! Our salt of regular table already all the common thing of the ground does not have; original of nonfine with the crystalline one of salt. Salt maintaining one day is mainly sodium chloride and nonsalt. With coming from industrial development, ours normal of age of salt; chemically clean and only reduced to sodium and chloride. The pipe of the company of the production dries its salt in enormous hot greenhouses with the temperatures which alcangam 1200 degrees of F, moving it salt the chemical structure of S, of which alternatively it affects the human body on the contrary. Salt that common table we employed in them which make cook has only the 2 or 3 chemical elements. sea water has 84 chemical elements. So that our body is cube we needed all these elements. When we employed ordinary salt, we are in a deficit of 81 elements of half we are contribution in certain manner so of making the weakker, imbalanced and more likely of the diseases. It employs the salt of sea water.

The problem with salt
State of the salt which we eat!
Salt of sea water.

Goddamn poetry, man.

Will you all chill out? It isn't New York City proposing this, it's one assemblyman proposing it because he got a bee in his bonnet due to his dad's health problems. I'll be very surprised if his proposal even comes to a vote, let alone is enacted or enforced.

rachel wrote:

Will you all chill out? It isn't New York City proposing this, it's one assemblyman proposing it because he got a bee in his bonnet due to his dad's health problems. I'll be very surprised if his proposal even comes to a vote, let alone is enacted or enforced.

So, he's doing this so that he could police his daddy's eating habits and sodium intake? Without needing to sit at the table with him?
Someone's got control issues...

rachel wrote:

Will you all chill out? It isn't New York City proposing this, it's one assemblyman proposing it because he got a bee in his bonnet due to his dad's health problems. I'll be very surprised if his proposal even comes to a vote, let alone is enacted or enforced.

Well in order to enforce it, it would require several government spies to eat in said restraunts to monitor whether extra salt is being offered to people. It would be an epic waste of taxpayers money, draconian and unnecessary. I hope for the people of NY that common sense prevails in this case.