Mollie Dreisbach  – Wednesday, November 23, 2016 at FEE

This week, families and friends across America will gather around their dinner tables to give thanks for the blessings of this past year. As Americans, we cherish this day of gratitude and celebration as we fill our bellies with turkey, cranberry sauce, and sweet potato pie.

By now, an image of Norman Rockwell’s famous Freedom from Want painting may come to mind. But some government officials and academic advocates want to limit your freedom to make dietary choices. This is evident by their efforts to ban, tax, label, or shame people into cutting nutrients like salt, fat, and sugar from their diets.

As you admire your Thanksgiving feast spread, here are five traditional foods that bureaucrats want to take off the menu:

1. The salty stuffing and mashed potatoes  

Before getting a second helping of stuffing, check out how the regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are trying to cut your salt intake. They believe that reducing dietary sodium also reduces the rates of hypertension and associated health problems. To tackle America’s salt problem, the FDA plans to set voluntary sodium reduction targets for prepared food. However, research indicates that salt isn’t a primary determining factor for hypertension.

The FDA misses that an aggressive, one-size-fits-all campaign to salt is not for everyone.Here’s what the FDA is missing: an aggressive, one-size-fits-all campaign to limit salt is not right for everyone.

First, reducing sodium in the food supply might not actually result in Americans eating less salt overall. Studies find that “salt appetite” – the level of salt people want – is unconscious. When the salt level of their diet is altered, even without their knowledge, people will naturally gravitate toward more or less salty foods to keep tier intake stable.

Furthermore, while evidence shows sodium reduction can lower blood pressure in some people who already have high blood pressure, there’s no evidence that restricting sodium to the government’s recommended limit makes people healthier. In fact, there’s some evidence it might make health worse.

2. The butter on your roll 

Despite a recent study that found that consuming butter does not … read more here