How Credible is Whole Foods?

Think you’re always buying organic food if it says so on the label? You might want to think again. The leading organic retailer in the United States, Whole Foods Market, was recently caught with its proverbial pants down.

ABC Channel 7 (WJLA) in Washington, D.C. aired a report showing that many of Whole Foods’ frozen organic products under the “365 Organic” label actually came from China, even one product labeled “California Blend Vegetables.” The video, available on YouTube, does say that since the story was first reported, Whole Foods now gets its California Blend Vegetables from California. And if the buyer looks closely enough at the back of the package, “Made in China” can be found in small print.

Food sold in the U.S. as organic must be approved by the USDA before displaying the “organic” label. Whole Foods said it relies on a third-party certifier Quality Assurance International (QAI) to certify its products from China, but when QAI was asked, they admitted that they, in turn, use yet another third-party certifier in China. Whole Foods refused to give the name of that company. Experts say that it is difficult, if not impossible, to confirm that organic standards are being met in China.

The TV station managed to obtain a confidential document listing the country of origin for many of Whole Foods’ products, including organics. It shows that dozens of these products come from China. That document is available on the station’s website at the bottom of the story.

Since the beginning of 2010, the Food and Drug Administration has stopped at least 260 shipments of foods from China, the station reported, including strawberries contaminated with pesticides, bacteria or filth. An earlier ABC story by a station in Atlanta, Georgia, revealed that the majority of seafood consumed in this country is imported from developing countries. Up to 60 percent of seafood imported through Alabama has been rejected by that states’ agriculture inspectors for contamination.

Yet another set of reasons to always read labels closely.

Good news for women’s hearts

Yet another study of the health benefits of omega-3's, this one published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. This was no small study: The Swedish Mammography Cohort analyzed data from 36,234 women over the course of 18 years, 651 of whom experienced heart failure. The researchers found that those women with the highest intake of fatty fish (fish with high amounts of omega-3s) reduced their risk of heart failure by a minimum of 25 percent.

Now compare that with the latest attempt by AstraZeneca to sell its cholesterol- lowering drug Crestor to healthy people, those with perfectly normal cholesterol, written up in the New York Times.

In the studies that the Food and Drug Administration based its approval of Crestor for this expanded use for healthy people, the rate of heart attacks experienced by people who a sugar pill (placebo) was 0.37 percent, it 68 patients out of 8,901 who took the sugar pill. Among those in the study who took Crestor, 0.17 percent, or 31 patients, had heart attacks. That 55 percent relative difference between the two groups translates to only 0.2 percentage points in absolute-- or 2 people out of 1,000.

As the New York Times article said, "Stated another way, 500 people would need to be treated with Crestor for a year to avoid one usually survivable heart attack... At $3.50 a pill, the cost of prescribing Crestor to 500 people for a year would be $680,000 to prevent one heart attack."

So which makes more sense, eating fatty fish once a week (or taking an omega-3 supplement such as fish oil or krill oil), or taking an expensive statin drug that has well-documented side effects?

Read more of the latest wellness news at WellWise.org.