How We Won the Fight to Ban Trans Fat

The Harvard Nurses’ Study found that high intake of trans fat may increase the risk of heart disease by 50 percent. ShutterStock

There are three broad approaches to mediating the ruin of risky choices: inform people (like using labeling), nudge people (for example, by offering financial incentives), or directly intervene to make the activity less harmful. Which do you think prevented more car fatalities: mandating driver education, labeling cars about crash risk, or removing the human element altogether by just making sure air bags are installed? There are public education nutrition campaigns, from “sugar pack” ads on public transit informing consumers how much sugar there is in soft drinks, to “Hot Dogs Cause Butt Cancer” billboards, educating about the link between processed meat and colorectal cancer. But is there a way to make products nutritionally safer in the first place?