The Right To NOT Know
By Rich Zeoli
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This being Thanksgiving, I personally have so many reasons to be thankful. For one thing our family was blessed with a son! Patrick Michael born on Veterans Day. Secondly, I am your new afternoon drive host on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, which is an honor. So on Thanksgiving I plan on stuffing my face with food and drink in celebration.
I'm Italian and we mark most of life's occasions with food. Eating is not something we do merely for survival, it's a celebration. Food is one of life's most enjoyable and pleasurable moments and once again the Nanny Staters are trying to suck the joy right out of my manicotti.
The Food and Drug Administration announced new rules this week requiring restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores, and pizza parlors, to display the nutritional content of food.
Where in the Constitution does it empower the federal government to tell private restaurants what to put on their menu? I checked and the answer is nowhere. Just because Congress passed a law called the Affordable Care Act empowering the FDA, doesn't make it Constitutional. In fact, I would argue its a violation of the 1st Amendment for the federal government to force restaurants to put anything on their menus.
Here's another point. What if I don't want to see the calories? What if I want to go down to East Passyunk and enjoy a delicious red gravy meal and not worry about what I'm eating because its our one night out? What if when I go to the movies and stuff my face with popcorn and not worry about the calories? Where is my right to not know how bad something is for me?
The Nanny State forces me to know the calories of what I'm eating. That's the real overreach. By forcing restaurants to post the nutritional content, I'm forced to look at the nutritional content. There's no opt-out. I can't walk into a restaurant and request the non-caloric version.
Spare me the arguments about obesity and the high costs of healthcare. I didn't ask to have the government pay for my healthcare and I didn't ask to help pay for yours.
When I go on vacation, or to the movies, or out to dinner, I want to forget about life for a while and that includes my cholesterol. So give me the option to not know because I don't need the Nanny State taking all the joy out of one of the most enjoyable moments of life. And with that, I'm gonna go brown some sausage because no Italian Thanksgiving is complete without lasagna.
