I am a very proud Puerto Rican and the proposed salt ban has nothing to do with our culture.

There is no good reason why restaurants add such an incredible amount of salt to food. It is bad for us, and like so many other things in some of our traditional recipes, salt is helping us to an early grave.

Maybe we should go back to lard instead of cooking oil?

I am not for the salt ban, as I think it will be harder to enforce and manage than the transfat ban or the calorie counts. Lower sodium foods have begun to pop up in our supermarkets and soon I hope restaurant menus will advertise lower salt dishes. Perhaps a better piece of legislation is to include salt and fat contents on menus along with recommended daily allowances (which I admit is easier said than done).

But to attack someone's sense of culture because of this is disgusting, ridiculous, petty, and just plain stupid. All things that we have come to expect from Senator Ruben Diaz. This article is no surprise at all, in fact the only surprise is that Diaz didn't link the proposed salt ban to gay marriage. Then again, the senator can be slow at times, so give him a few days and he'll find a way.

In the meantime, I hope restaurants start dropping the salt content, not just latin american restaurants. KFC is one of the worst because the extra salt actually stings your lips because there is so much of it. Some McDonalds don't serve fries with salt added. Others do the opposite and give you salt with a few fries added, with big salt crystals gleaming off the oily surface. Burger King, Wendys, etc. are all the same. Diners make homemade soups that often are over-salted. Asian restaurants (especially the bullet-proof Chinese takeouts) are some of the most notorious for adding too much salt. Soul food restaurants aren't much better.

I love latin american food. But when I cook it I use olive or canola oil, not lard like my grandparents used. I trim the fat off my meats. I think about the nutritional content of each dish. And I go real easy with the salt, and instead use a number of herbs and spices that are easily found in Puerto Rico. It wasn't a hard transition to make, and I didn't wait until my doctor told me I was gonna die if I didn't do it.

Back to the idiotic post: The senator should take a good look at high blood pressure and heart disease in his own district before writing such incredibly stupid posts like this. His constituents should see him for the hack he is. I mean really, what the hell does salt have to do with being a Puerto Rican? I'd rather ease up on the salt and be around to be a senior citizen.

Anyone who would defend this should remember the words of Samuel Adams, "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

I was once younger and maybe more naive.  I felt that government could and would make life better for the masses, that those elected to office were inherently wanting to better the lot of their fellow men.  As I've grown older, I've become more pessimistic, maybe more realist, disillusioned, or maybe I've come to see that men, whether lay men or those entrusted to govern their fellow man, are selfish....or maybe just wanting of attention... Maybe a combination of all the aforementioned.  It is with these thoughts in mind that I note that when I was younger, I disliked Ruben Diaz.  Maybe from what I had seen, or what I had heard, read from the media, I don't know.  Thanks to the internet, and seeing the senate sessions on television, my former opinions have changed and I have begun to, grudgingly, develop a measure of respect for Reverend Diaz.  I may not agree with his opinion on every issue, but in regards to this one, I do not see how anyone could criticize his stand.

In the last few years, those of you who live in New York City and own property have seen your property taxes go up four fold, you've seen your water bill go up the same, and have had the experience of your government officials tell you that using less water doesn't matter, that they'll raise the rates to meet a  revenue goal.  Those of you who rent have seen your rents go up because your landlord has to make up for the new expenses.  Or you've seen less services.  Less repairs, less heat, less hot water.  You've seen Con Edison raise rates through the roof to make up for their added expenses in property taxes and corporate executive pay.  You've seen more graffitti, less sanitation trucks, less snow removal in the outer boroughs, many more potholes, and no matter what they tell you, more crime.  Those of you outside the city within the state have seen your property values fall precipituously while taxes have skyrocketed.

With all the above problems, every day you see your newspapers report on how there is no consensus on a budget, there is a deficit, and elected officials crying to anyone, whether the federal government or other agency, that we need a bailout.

It is with this in mind and in the current state of affairs that an Assemblyman (FELIX ORTIZ) decides to ban salt.

"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.”

MESSAGE TO THE ASSEMBLYMAN (FELIX ORTIZ):  ALL THINGS IN EXCESS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE BAD FOR YOU...

Do we ban sugar next?  Gasoline smells bad, lets ban it.  How about the color black?  What about wine?  Not good for you.  Pork?  too much fat.  Sunlight causes cancer.  Ban it.  Television? bad for your eyesight.  Computers? those too.  Ban them all.  If you read too many books, your eyesight might go bad also.  Ban those.

That an assemblyman, an elected official, someone who is supposed to be elected to better the position of his fellow man, would propose such stupidity, such a dumb proposal, leaves me dumbfounded.  Wanting of attention?  or is there some other reason, maybe a lack of a contribution from a restaurant or salt company?  Whatever it may be, it is a stupid idiotic proposal for the People of New York.

When considered in light of all the REAL PROBLEMS that face this assemblyman's constituency, the People of the State of New York, YOU THE PEOPLE, must consider whether this guy (FELIX ORTIZ) deserves to be in Albany.

Interesting post. A lot of states are dealing with this same thing.

 http://thestatecolumn.com/states/newyork.php