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The era of government regulation on calorie consumption has begun, and nowhere is it playing out more clearly than in California. The state legislature has proposed a trans fat ban in restaurants (a rule that’s already in place in New York City) and now Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry is proposing a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South L.A. The ban is based on research indicating that 45 percent of the restaurants in South L.A. are of the fast food variety, compared to 16 percent in West L.A.; plus child obesity rates in South L.A. are 29 percent, compared with 23 percent nationwide.

The racial and socioeconomic politics here are obvious—KFC-laden South L.A. is predominantly African American and Latino, while the vegan/organic wonderland of West L.A. is home to a highly affluent (and mostly white) population.

Critics raise the obvious, and valid, point about incentives—rather than punishing restaurants for serving unhealthy food, shouldn’t we be offering economic incentives for health food stores and salad bars to open in South L.A.? Simply keeping a new Burger King out does nothing to provide South L.A. residents with healthier and more nutritious food options. As one busy mother interviewed for the piece said, “There’s never any place you can go over here to buy … organic food. There’s no Trader Joe’s over here.” That pretty much sums it up right there.

Image: iStockPhoto 

On Fridays here at Reality Base, we’ll bring you a summary of the latest in science and politics news and opinion from around the Web.

• The G8 summit started out strong, but the end results were tepid at best. Still, a little good may have come of it.

• Are ration books next? The British government urges Brits to cut back on food waste and eat more leftovers.

• The awesome (and frightening) power of Photoshop: With a single doctored photo, Iran alters missiles, fears, international perceptions.

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With worldwide food prices on the rise, it’s time to play the blame game. President Bush started it off with a bang, stating in a May 2 news conference that India’s growing industrialization and increased food demand from the middle class were, in essence, the culpable parties.

No surprise, his remarks spurred indignant responses from Indian commerce and economics officials, who fired back with the argument that the increase in food prices has as much—or more—to do with American overconsumption as it does with industrialization in India. Their argument is supported by recent research showing that the 34 percent of Americans (and similar percentage of British) who are obese consume 18 percent more food energy than the rest of the population.

But another major factor that’s, er, fueling the price increase is ethanol. Since the embrace of the corn-based product as an alternative fuel source, the federal government has mandated that large amounts of U.S.-grown corn be converted into biofuels. To this end, the feds created additional subsidies to induce farmers to grow corn for fuel as opposed to food—meaning that substantial amounts of what was once food-producing land has been diverted to non-food production. Combine less product with higher demand and prices are bound to creep up.

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Obesity
The good news: Child obesity rates in the U.S. have finally stopped rising. The bad news: Even if the rates have stabilized for good, experts say levels are already so high that the epidemic will continue for decades. More bad news: Obesity increases the risk of everything from stillbirth to heart disease. And more bad news: Rimonabant, once hailed as an anti-obesity wonder drug, has now been associated with multiple deaths in the U.K. Still, on the upside, all those cases of bariatric surgery may be curing diabetes.

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