Organic Life: Eight books about organic food systems
I did an interview last year with Rebecca Straus of Organic Life about books of interest to the magazine’s readers. I never heard what happened to it but learned from a recent tweet that it is now available online. So consider this a late catch up. Marion Nestle’s Favorite Organic Books: Eight reads to get you thinking about where your food is coming from. Organic Life, September 11, 2015. Food advocate Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University, has long been outspoken in her support of organic farming and opposition to GMO crops. Her books and articles on how science, marketing, and society impact food choices and obesity have influenced everyone from Michelle Obama to Michael Pollen, who named her the …
The Guardian’s article on the “sugar conspiracy”
I mentioned yesterday that whenever something comes out saying that “everything you thought you knew about nutrition is wrong,” it’s a sign that some skepticism may be in order. Here is another example: The article on the “sugar conspiracy“ by Ian Leslie published in The Guardian. This strongly criticizes the work of Ancel Keys, whose work was largely but by no means exclusively responsible for the diet-heart hypothesis linking excessive intake of animal fats to heart disease risk. I love conspiracy theories as much as anyone else and appreciated how the author made his case for this one. My sense of his article was that it had grains of truth (Gary Taubes and Cristin Kearns, for example, report that Keys had funding from …
How much is the soda industry spending to defeat public health?
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mike Newall says the beverage industry is spending a lot of money (“flowing like a Big Gulp”) to defeat the City Council’s soda tax initiative—$2.6 million so far (but see footnote below). Here’s the catch – this time around, the beverage barons only have to win over City Council. There are 17 Council members, so that comes out to about $152,000 in ad dollars each. Philadelphia is a battleground Big Soda cannot afford to lose. The soda industry spent more than $10 million to fight soda tax measures in San Francisco (the industry succeeded) and in Berkeley (the industry lost—76{7920e18cf5186565893a18d1f69fa52bf2806dc683a7bfcea51d671d2f7d8125} of voters were for the tax). But what I really want to know is how much the soda industry …
At last! Menu labels in 2017!
Wonder of wonders, the FDA at last has issued its Final Guidance on Menu Labeling to go into effect a year from now. Why astonishment? New York City has had menu labeling since 2008. The national process started in 2010. Here’s the chronology: YEAR DATE ACTION 2010 March 23 President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act which includes a provision requiring chain retail food establishments with 20 or more locations to provide calorie information for standard menu items. July 7 FDA publishes Federal Register notice soliciting comments and suggestions Aug 25 FDA requests comments on “Draft Guidance for Industry: Questions and Answers Regarding Implementation of the Menu Labeling.” 2011 Jan 25 FDA withdraws draft implementation guidance; announces intent to exercise enforcement discretion until rulemaking process is complete; requests comments. April 6 FDA issues proposed rule. May 24 …
More on corporate funding of nutrition research: exchange of letters
In January this year, JAMA Internal Medicine published my Viewpoint on corporate funding of nutrition research: science or marketing. Richard Kahn, former chief scientist and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association, wrote a letter in reply (see below for more about him**). The journal published his letter, along with my response, in its current issue. Here’s what I said. In Reply Dr Kahn requests evidence that nutrition research funded by food companies is of lesser quality than studies funded by independent agencies or performed by investigators with nonfinancial conflicts of interest. Concerns about such issues are relatively recent; few published studies address them directly. Instead, concerns about industry sponsorship of nutrition research derive from comparisons with the results of studies of funding by tobacco, chemical…
Big Ag forces firing of long-time Farm News cartoonist
I love cartoons (witness Eat, Drink, Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics) and was appalled when I read this tweet: Here’s the offending cartoon: In a Facebook post the cartoonist, Rick Friday, explained: I am no longer the Editorial Cartoonist for Farm News due to the attached cartoon which was published yesterday. Apparently a large company affiliated with one of the corporations mentioned in the cartoon was insulted and cancelled their advertisement with the paper, thus, resulting in the reprimand of my editor and cancellation of It’s Friday cartoons after 21 years of service and over 1090 published cartoons to over 24,000 households per week in 33 counties of Iowa. I did my research and only submitted the facts in my cartoon. That’s okay, hopefully my children …
Weekend reading: Jennifer Pomeranz’s Food Law
Jennifer L. Pomeranz. Food Law for Public Health. Oxford University Press, 2016. I’m told that food law is the hottest area in legal education right now. At a time when law schools and lawyers are struggling, food law offers opportunities. Food issues are so controversial that they constitute a full employment act. Jennifer Pomeranz is my colleague at NYU. Her book could not be more timely, and I was delighted to give it a blurb: If you want to know how laws and regulations affect what you eat, how those laws are made, and why they cause so much controversy, Food Law for Public Health is a terrific place to start.
Coca-Cola items: Warren Buffett’s gaffe. Share a Coke and a Song.
Warren Buffett, the billionnaire who owns 9.3{7920e18cf5186565893a18d1f69fa52bf2806dc683a7bfcea51d671d2f7d8125} of Coca-Cola stock, understandably defends its products. When challenged by shareholders in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett said: He also said he drank 700 calories worth of Coca-Cola each day (translation: 44 teaspoons of sugars). As Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest put it, this much sugar is not in the interest of anyone’s health. Maybe the Wizard of Omaha can maintain good health while consuming more than three times the added sugars recommended by the nation’s leading health officials, but it’s a sure-fire prescription for increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and tooth decay for the rest of his fellow citizens…the American Heart Association whose scientific panels have reviewed the …
Congress, FOIA, and Checkoff programs
Congress in its infinite wisdom is now doing Big Ag a big favor. It wants to exempt checkoff programs from having to deal with pesky Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The House Appropriations Committee just approved its version of the 2017 Agriculture Appropriations bill along with committee report language getting checkoffs off the hook. Checkoff programs, you will recall are commodity research and promotion programs run by boards and overseen by USDA. The Milk Board, for example, does the milk mustache campaign. Checkoffs mainly do generic marketing. They are not supposed to lobby. The USDA is supposed to manage the boards—but not with federal money. So are checkoffs government programs or not? The checkoffs like to say they are government when convenient, but not government when …
Healthy? Natural? It’s up to the FDA.
The terms “healthy” and “natural” help to sell food products. They are about marketing, not health. This makes life difficult for the FDA, which has the unenviable job of defining what the terms mean on food labels. In a victory for the maker of KIND bars, the FDA has just said that the bars can be advertised as healthy—and that the agency will be revisiting its long-standing definition of the term. This is what that definition says now: You may use the term “healthy” or related terms as an implied nutrient content claim on the label or in labeling of a food that is useful in creating a diet that is consistent with dietary recommendations if the food meets the conditions for total …