Trust the Food Marketers to Tell You the Truth?

Don’t put your trust in the government, either

At first blush, it looks like the government is stepping up its efforts to curb some of the most egregious false health claims being on products made by the big boys in the food world. However, it is beginning to look like recent reprimands are a mere slap on the wrist rather than serious action. Here’s the story:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently slammed theKellogg Company for the second time in a year for making unsubstantiated claims in advertising and on packaging. The first time was when Kellogg claimed that Frosted Mini-Wheats were “clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%.” The FTC reached a “settlement” with the company after telling them they had to shut down the campaign. Kellogg was not fined.

The second time, the company was claiming that Rice Krispies “now helps support your child’s immunity,” with “25 percent Daily Value of Antioxidants and Nutrients – Vitamins A, B, C, and E.” The back of the cereal box said “Kellogg’s Rice Krispies has been improved to include antioxidants and nutrients that your family needs to help them stay healthy.”

Naughty, naughty the FTC told them. Commissioner Julie Brill and Chairman Jon Leibowitz sent a “dissenting letter” to Kellogg that said, in part, “What is particularly disconcerting to us is that at the same time that Kellogg was making promises to the Commission regarding Frosted Mini-Wheats, the company was preparing to make problematic claims about Rice Krispies.”

Bad company! Bad! Go to your rug! But did the FTC back up the scolding with a fine? Bet you know the answer. Put this together with the revelation that another of the government’s watchdog agencies, the Minerals and Management Service, was allowing oil companies such as BP to write their own regulations and environmental impact statements, and you begin to understand just how much influence big companies have over our governmental watchdogs.

Remember the “Smart Choices” labeling program that came out in 2009? This was a long project that involved giant food companies and nutrition scientists coming up with criteria for putting a nice seal on packaging that was supposed to help the consumer choose healthier products. So how did Froot Loops cereal end up with a Smart Choices seal, when it has 41 percent processed white sugar? Each serving holds 12 grams of the white stuff. And this in a nation that has an obesity epidemic!? And what about full-fat mayonnaise?

As always, it’s consumer beware! Educate yourself about health and nutrition. You simply cannot rely on the big food marketers to give you trustworthy information about what is good for you, nor the government to make sure they do.

We just have to be adults about this.

Do You Know the History of Supplements?

If there was ever any doubt in your mind that getting natural products (supplements, etc.) and alternative medicine practices into the mainstream has been a long struggle, you’ll want to read James Gormley’s recent blog. Among the eye-opening tidbits he shares are these:

1910-1930

The American Medical Association (AMA) and a lobby of early “modern” pharmacies are embarrassed by the Flexner Report of 1910 (which made disease-focused, or allopathic, medicine look bad) and work together to mainly run natural medicine “out of town,” focusing especially on Eclectic, naturopathic and homeopathic medical schools. By 1930, aside from osteopathic and chiropractic schools, alternative medicine has been dealt a severe blow.

1960

In December, government agents enter the warehouses of the Balanced Foods Company in New York City and seize many copies of Folk Medicine and Arthritis and Folk Medicine, two popular books by the late doctor, D.C. Jarvis. The agents also seize bottles of vinegar and honey, since they were referred to in Jarvis’ books. The FDA brought suit against Balanced Foods in Federal District Court in New York City on the grounds that the vinegar and honey products constituted “misbranded drugs”! Milton Bass won this case … for consumers and the industry.

1998

FDA inspectors arrive at the offices of a Texas-based stevia company to "witness destruction" of "offending" cookbooks featuring stevia, and other literature. A video camera taping the aborted destruction, and the intercession of Julian Whitaker, M.D. and Jim Turner prevented the book burning.

This last one will probably come as a surprise to many people who now see stevia (Reb-A) being used as an alternative sweetener in soft drinks, among other things. The early pioneers tried for 40 years to get the FDA to even look at stevia as a sweetener. Then when Cargill and Coca Cola teamed up to petition for it last year (because the grassroots have been demanding it), it happened almost overnight. Now stevia is a burgeoning new industry.