{"id":1029,"date":"2011-10-21T11:51:05","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T16:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2013-07-03T17:25:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T22:25:48","slug":"cspis-advice-is-not-in-the-public-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2011\/10\/21\/cspis-advice-is-not-in-the-public-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"CSPI’s Advice is NOT in the Public Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)\u00a0has long been an advocate of controversial food policies.\u00a0 Since the 1970s they have attracted media attention to many of their campaigns.\u00a0 Two\u00a0reports brought my attention back to CSPI.\u00a0 The first was an article in The\u00a0National\u00a0<\/a> about the history of popcorn which\u00a0mentions the Center for Science \u00a0in the Public Interest <\/em>(CSPI).\u00a0 CSPI’s demonization of coconut oil\u00a0caused many movie theaters across America to\u00a0replace it with less healthy vegetable oils and to stop using butter.\u00a0\u00a0The pressure to change was bad\u00a0because the charges against coconut oil were untrue and<\/em>\u00a0the\u00a0butter and coconut oil were the most nutritious ingredients in the popcorn.<\/p>\n

The second<\/a>\u00a0article, in the Kansas City Star, reveals more\u00a0recent CSPI advice that’s still\u00a0not in the public interest<\/em>. To celebrate Food Day on October 24, Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, recommends six unhealthy foods you should remove from your diet. Note: Food Day was founded by the CSPI.\u00a0He also recommends \u201cnutritious\u201d replacements. Let\u2019s look at the better recommendations first,\u00a0such as replacing soft drinks and sugary drinks with milk and water\u2014that\u2019s good, if<\/em> the milk is whole and\u00a0raw. He also recommends replacing packaged and restaurant foods with home-cooked meals\u2014that\u2019s mostly good if<\/em> the home cook knows how to prepare real foods, and many no longer know how.\u00a0And he recommends replacing refined sugar with raw honey and other natural sweeteners\u2014that would be\u00a0better choice as long as natural sweeteners are used in moderation. He recommends grass-fed beef replacing corn and grain-fed beef\u2014that\u2019s also very good and he gives the right reasons, too. Another good recommendation is to replace white bread with whole grains, good, but he overdoes the whole grains by saying \u201cFill your diet with whole grains . . . and you might feel less hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0Jacobson offers some\u00a0very bad advice, the worst being a heavy condemnation of salt, saying \u201cSalt is the single most harmful substance in our diet.\u201d REALLY? The single most harmful substance? What about MSG (he does includes MSG as another source of salt to be avoided), trans fats and other bad fats, pesticides, GMOs, unfermented soy? Aren\u2019t those worse? If he had qualified his statement condemning salt by saying excessive consumption of processed, refined salt is bad, he could have been closer to the truth; however, salt is not only not the most harmful substance we eat, it is essential to life. Without salt we die. If we avoid processed foods and fast food restaurants and salt our real food\u00a0to taste with unrefined sea salt, such as Celtic Sea Salt, then salt is not bad, in fact, it is good for our health and our taste.<\/p>\n

Another bad recommendation–replace processed meats with fish (yes, that\u2019s good) and vegetarian foods (not so good). The kinds of vegetarian foods he recommends are veggie burgers, i.e., fake meat, that, according to Jacobson, \u201chave the feel and taste of a hamburger but are much, much lower in saturated fat.\u201d He\u2019s another\u00a0health “expert”\u00a0who hasn\u2019t heard about the study released by American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. [See my previous post,<\/a>\u00a0Analysis Shows No Association of Saturated Fat With Cardiovascular Disease<\/em> for the latest on saturated fats.]\u00a0 Why not replace processed meats with grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, etc., instead of \u2018fake meat\u2019 in the form of veggie burgers?<\/p>\n

CSPI has\u00a0great\u00a0influence on dietary policies and practices across the nation which\u00a0should\u00a0require\u00a0from them a higher standard of background research and truth for\u00a0 their recommendations.\u00a0 CSPI has been the instigator for changes in the nation’s eating habits that have been very harmful to our health.\u00a0 Dr. Mary Enig, a Ph.D. nutritionist and expert on the dangers of trans fats, says that the blame for the prevalence of\u00a0trans fats falls largely on Jacobson.\u00a0 In 1989,\u00a0CSPI put\u00a0pressure on fast food restaurants to\u00a0switch from beef tallow and palm oil\u00a0to vegetable oils (trans fats)\u00a0to cook French fries.\u00a0\u00a0In a 1988 newsletter, CSPI said that “the charges against trans fat just don’t hold up.”\u00a0\u00a0[CSPI did later reverse its approval of trans fats.]\u00a0 Fragile vegetable oils should never be used for high temperature cooking because, when heated, they turn into toxic\u00a0\u00a0compounds,\u00a0including trans fats.\u00a0 All vegetable oils and all products made with vegetable oils contain trans fats.\u00a0 They react with oxygen to generate free radicals which\u00a0damage our arteries and other body tissues\u00a0and generate inflammation, while, at the same time, they reduce the nutrients found in the foods.\u00a0So why would CSPI pressure restaurants to switch from a fat, beef tallow, that can handle heat well to vegetable oil that is so badly damaged by heat that it is harmful to our bodies?\u00a0\u00a0That’s the question, why do they continue to make\u00a0harmful dietary recommendations that hurt our whole nation without doing the in-depth research to determine the truth?\u00a0 Here’s what some research turned up about CSPI . . .<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia<\/a>,\u00a0CSPI was founded in 1971 by current executive director Michael Jacobson and two co-workers at Ralph Nader’s Center for the Study of Responsive Law.\u00a0 CSPI has relied on letters to the FDA,\u00a0lawsuits, and demonstrations\u00a0to accomplish its goals.\u00a0 It has targeted common foods such as\u00a0meats, dairy, and alcohol.\u00a0 Jacobson is a vegetarian and has said that proper nutrition “means eating a more plant-based diet . . .It means getting your fats from plants (vegetable oils and nuts) and fish, not animals (meats, milk, cheese, and ice cream).”\u00a0 He says “that people can’t be trusted to make wise and healthful decisions on their own.”\u00a0\u00a0 [For more information about the myth of better health through vegetarianism, see Twenty-Two Reasons Not to Go Vegetarian<\/a>.]\u00a0 Many sources believe that CSPI alters data and\u00a0misstates study results\u00a0to support\u00a0its goals.\u00a0 CSPI shows a history of ignoring the truth and doesn\u2019t show much evidence of \u201cscience\u201d based research for their proclamations.<\/p>\n

My conclusion: due to the harm they have already caused to our health, we should view all of their campaigns and recommendations carefully and skeptically.\u00a0 Their use of the phrase “in the Public Interest” is\u00a0completely\u00a0misleading.\u00a0 Their recommendations are not in the public interest. Using the word “science” in their organization name indicates a respect for scientific truth that isn\u2019t evident in CSPI campaigns.\u00a0 So the final question is why does such a flawed organization still get so much respect from the major media?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)\u00a0has long been an advocate of controversial food policies.\u00a0 Since the 1970s they have attracted media attention to many of their campaigns.\u00a0 Two\u00a0reports brought my attention back to CSPI.\u00a0 The first was …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,19],"tags":[35,65,57,66],"class_list":["post-1029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-fats","category-real-food","tag-healthy-fats-2","tag-heart-disease","tag-saturated-fat","tag-vegetarian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-gB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4714,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions\/4714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}