By Dale McFeatters
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is often mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate, and perhaps, given his considerable personal fortune, as a third-party standard-bearer.
Whatever his other merits - he's apparently a pretty good mayor - Bloomberg would bring a novel but important issue to the presidential race, the voters' weight and nutritional well-being, in short, food.
You don't normally turn to The New York Times' Dining Out section for serious political commentary, but there it was recently, a takeout on the Big Apple politics of food under the subhead, "How the Mayor Became The City's Most Powerful Foodie."
As part of his campaign to protect constituents against obesity and diabetes, he has banned trans fats in restaurants and required them to post the calorie count of their dishes.
After taking over the school system, Bloomberg appointed an executive chef, and the student lunches now run heavily to whole-wheat bread, salad bars and sliced apples. Day-care providers are required to give their charges fewer calories.
He has launched an initiative to get mom-and-pop stores in low-income neighborhoods to sell healthier foods - 1 percent milk and more fruits and vegetables. The city is rethinking the kinds of food served in the Meals on Wheels program.
To oversee all of this, Bloomberg has appointed a food-policy coordinator, a food czar, who heads - some things about government never change - an interdepartmental food-policy task force.
Tim Zagat, publisher of the famed dining guides, told the Times: "The government's involvement in what we're eating is going to be increasingly visible as a way to make people healthier."
Libertarians might quarrel that what we eat is none of the government's business, and dedicated conservatives that this is the nanny state carried way too far. But the political possibilities are intriguing and promising.
Try this on for a Bloomberg political slogan: "Vote for me and I'll make you thinner and better-looking." We're listening.
Copyright Scripps Howard News Service. Reproduced with permission.
