Saving you from yourself

I haven't seen any concrete research being done but I would be willing to bet you would find that Minnesotans aren't smoking nearly as much in the state's bars and restaurants as, say, eight years ago.

Uhhh....that's because there's been a statewide smoking ban is such establishments for *at least* the past 6-7 years. No study required to make that assertion.

Oh.


Well then why the heck did there need to be a study in New York City to validate that consumers are cutting back on items which are banned?

A five-year-old ban on the use of trans fats in New York City restaurants has sharply reduced the consumption of these unhealthy fats among fast-food customers, a study by city health officials has found.

In 2007, the New York City Board of Health, spurred on by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, adopted a regulation that forced restaurants to all but eliminate the use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and spreads, the main sources of trans fats in the U.S. diet.

The ban appears to have had the intended effect. A new analysis of thousands of lunch receipts, collected at fast-food chains before and after the ban went into effect, estimates that the average trans fat content of customers' meals has dropped by 2.5 grams, from about 3 grams to 0.5 grams.

Additionally, the proportion of meals containing less than 0.5 grams — an amount generally considered negligible — increased from 32% to 59% between 2007 and 2009.

In similar news, Minnesotans who have no alcohol in their refrigerator on Sundays are less likely to consume adult beverages on that day as opposed to any other day of the week when alcohol is available for purchase.

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