ome foods that are typically part of the American diet are labeled "bad," and consumers are sometimes urged to avoid them religiously. One prominent example is eggs. Because egg yolks are high in cholesterol, their consumption has sometimes been depicted as leading directly to high blood cholesterol levels and heart disease. But that depiction of eggs glosses over the very positive nutritional roles that eggs can play in the diet.
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Forget anthrax and terrorism. Public health experts have uncovered a more pernicious threat to Americans' health and safety the suburbs. According to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and university public health departments, developers are forcing tens of millions of unwitting Americans into dangerous suburban developments that isolate us from our neighbors, stress us out, make us fat, kill pedestrians, and fill our air with auto-generated smog.
On October 27 the New York Times published a story from the Associated Press newswire stating that the USDA had approved the used of irradiated meat in the national School Lunch Program. We here at ACSH applauded the move, since it would help protect some of the most vulnerable parts of the population from bacterial contamination of meats. We even posted a press release to that effect. But don't look for the press release today we had to take it down, because the AP story wasn't true.
The World Health Organization has released World Health Report 2002, one of its most ambitious projects ever (see: http://www.who.int/whr/2002/overview/en/), and it helps underscore the fact that big, obvious health threats do far more damage than the obscure or hypothetical risk of the week. As the WHO's introduction says:
PETA is giving children stickers that look like familiar cigarette ads but warn that cigarette companies do testing on animals. PETA says getting kids to stop smoking might be a fringe benefit but that their goal is to stop the animal testing.
Philip Morris's no doubt sincere and selfless response?
"PETA is acting irresponsibly by handing out tobacco logos to children."
Ellen Merlo, senior vice president, Philip Morris,quoted in the New York Times September 27, 2002
The following ditty will be performed at the American Council on Science and Health's Christmas Party on December 20, if all goes as planned:
Organic food buffs think they are wiser than the rest of us about what to eat, but:
"The truth is there is no scientific evidence to prove that organic foods are safer or more nutritious than conventionally grown foods. They both must meet the same safety and quality standards based on government guidelines and standards."
Dietician Terrie A. Holewinksi, quoted by HealthScoutNews
For several years the pharmaceutical industry has been under attack by those who are using the industry for political purposes. Some attack the pharmaceutical industry with the goal of establishing a government-run healthcare system, while others are simply gaining votes and campaign contributions from those with a grudge against the industry.
Consumer Freedom (CF) is "a coalition of concerned individuals and businesses working together to promote personal responsibility and protect a full menu of consumer choices." Part of what they do is point out errors in science and tricky statistics that are used by activists to promote particular agendas. And usually they do a pretty good job. So this morning, when I received a list of their latest headlines and observations, I was surprised to see a decided misstep.
There seems to be some disconnect from reality when one hears strident voices dogmatically proclaiming that our food system has "failed" and must be entirely transformed, or that the "Green Revolution" (which boosted crop yields through improved fertilizer use) is a failure. People who say that must think, as Tertullian (and later St.
Submitted by
The American Council on Science and Health
March, 2003
Overview
Not everyone is celebrating this year's fiftieth anniversary of Watson and Crick's achievement: the deciphering of the double helix structure of DNA. To some, the molecular biology of DNA is a symbol of the much-despised, modern, Western, reductionist science that is blamed for every conceivable ill from imperialism and male domination of women to environmental degradation.
Break It Down, Build It Up
In this newly revised and updated edition the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) continues to challenge the widely held popular wisdom that "Everyone knows the health hazards of smoking." This popular belief has become the mantra of those who oppose litigation against cigarette companies.
Recent research from the Harvard School of Public Health and Sweden's Karolinska Institute found no link between consumption of acrylamide from foods and the occurrence of colon, bladder, or kidney cancers just as ACSH predicted.
Two biotech companies agreed last week to pay $110 million to corn farmers who lost money because of consumer fears three years ago when some genetically-modified StarLink corn, intended as animal feed, found its way into the human food supply.
The Associated Press reported last week that "health officials said Wednesday that concerns over compensation for people injured by the smallpox vaccine are hampering the inoculation program, which has vaccinated just a few hundred people so far. Federal authorities acknowledge the problem but still have no solution." Workmen's compensation is one possible channel for funds to the small fraction of vaccine recipients who suffer side effects. Here in fiscally troubled New York City, officials will delay the vaccination program for months, pending a solution to the compensation problem.
According to a recent UCLA study, "Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Tobacco-Related Mortality in a Prospective Study of Californians" (reported in the British Medical Journal), environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is not as harmful as many anti-smoking activists say. The study, which tracked 118,058 individuals over the course of thirty-eight years, found no significant correlation between exposure to secondhand smoke and death due to coronary heart disease or lung cancer.
The American obesity epidemic is a hot topic. Anyone who doubts that views diverge on what should be done about it should have attended the conference on "Obesity, Individual Responsibility, and Public Policy" at the American Enterprise Institute on June 10. Experts from a variety of fields debated the question of whether obesity is increasing, who or what should be held responsible, and what should be done about it.
As a good lawyer, Joe Califano has bravely attempted to put the best face possible on the besieged report recently released by his Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), "Alcohol Consumption and Expenditures for Underage Drinking and Adult Excessive Drinking." However, he can't change the ugly fact that it is seriously flawed, with errors and misuse of statistics. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criticized the study for making "inappropriate" assumptions, using CDC data to make an inflated claim about the extent of underage drinking.
"There is always going to be greasy, fried, salty, sugary food...It is up to the individual to walk in and say 'I don't want those fries'...anyone who's trying to sue the fast food places needs a therapist, not an attorney."
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), paraphrasing diet guru Richard Simmons, as noted by the July 23 Wall Street Journal
Each additional attempt to reformulate food or add another label to existing food in response to government mandates or public fears increases food production costs.
Consumers are often inundated by studies touted in the media, promoting certain foods and disparaging others, sometimes frustrating people with credible-sounding but contradictory advice. Often the culprit creating these contradictory bits of wisdom is a flawed method of data interpretation dubbed "data dredging" by its critics.
Biotech boosters have sometimes used the practical argument that if the U.S. imposes heavy regulations on biotech the cloning of human cells or the genetic modification (g.m.) of plants companies and scientists might flee to other nations. That may yet prove true, but it looks like those companies and scientists will have to flee to somewhere less glamorous than Europe.
There have been reminders over the past two months that Europe does not have a laissez-faire attitude toward biotech, whether of the human or plant variety.
Editor's note:
Victor Herbert, M.D., an ACSH Advisor, passed away on November 19, just a few days after we posted this item about an amusing stunt Dr. Herbert once pulled. We intend no disrespect by leaving the item up and trust that Dr. Herbert would have been delighted to know that new readers are learning about one of his many efforts to lampoon quackery and pseudo-science.
Pagination
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