KFC caved last week to pressure from the New York City Board of Health among other sources announcing it would substitute soybean oil for its trans-fat laden stuff. The American Heart Association and the former Surgeon General are among the many celebrating this move. I am not yet one of them. Just a few years ago, we were told to eat margarine instead of butter and now it turns out butter may have been a better choice. We were told to consume sugar substitutes instead of sugar and then it turns out sugar substitutes rarely help with weight loss and some have side effects that natural sugar doesn’t have. Besides the fact that health science is an inexact one at best and seems to change radically every 20 years, I believe marketers need to have reasonably free reign over their products and consumers total free reign over their selections. Seems to me that fried chicken is fried chicken and will not qualify as health food under the best of circumstances soy bean oil or otherwise. If a marketer wants to make a healthier product to gain competitive advantage more power to him. If a food marketer wants to make that the richest apple pie in the world complete with lard to enhance a flaky crust and cheddar cheese on top, I say bring it on. Consumers should have the freedom of choice and can elect to eat healthy or not. In the world of marketing for good, good comes from making life a little better and sometimes a fat-laden calorie-rich piece of pie is just what the doctor ordered.