My wife and I bought a book about nutrition a few years back. It was "
Eat, Drink and Be Healthy" It's a sort of thinking person's guide to good nutrition. We really have derived tremendous benefit from the book. It has helped us stay fit and ,for the most part, kept us in better health. We have bought copies for other people, as well as recommended it to friends and fellow bloggers.
The author of the book is Walter C. Willett. We became of aware of him after I saw him one afternoon testifying about the food pyramid (now, revised) on C-Span. He delivered a simple message, "eat less, exercise more."
Now, our family strays from the directions in the book now and then. Neither of us are perfectly fit, but we do our best, and we have learned what sort of foods are the best. We still eat occasional junk food, and consume some down right naughty things, but for the most part, we are better off, having read the book. Often, when we see pathetic health segments on CNN and MSNBC, we have a laugh and talk about what they have wrong. In short, the book has given our little family its own dietary culture.
As I continue to drift away from believing the dreary state of affairs in our country will change through the ballot box, I care less and less about what other Americans eat. That is to say, in simpler terms, if the big fat people out there want to get bigger and fatter, then that's fine. That's a little disclaimer about what's to come.
Back to Willett, after researching the man, I found him to be remarkable, so I set up a Google News Alert to keep me updated on what he was doing. Usually, the alerts come in and there will be some stock quote from his book, or perhaps they will mention him as being a food pyramid critic (which he is), or anti-dairy (which he isn't).
I got one the other day with an anti-Willett column from FOXnews, which I just had to write about.
Steven Milloy, who I have written about a couple of times before, writes a piece attacking the "food cops" at the Center for Science in The Public Interest. The rationale for the piece is the CSPI is proposing (according to Milloy) a warning label on Soda Cans about childhood obesity. Milloy is a critic of the idea, and frankly, so I am. Now that's an important point. I agree with Milloy that such a label is unnecessary.
Milloy also makes sure he throws in an attack on Dr. Willett. Some of his propaganda techniques are easy to see through:
Name calling:
The food police filed a petition this week with the federal government to require that regular (non-diet) soft drinks carry health warning labels.
Anti-fun food activists at the self-proclaimed "Center for Science in the Public Interest"
(Milloy is a self proclaimed "junk science debunker")
Glittering generalities:
While consumption of dietary sugars has been linked with dental caries (search), it's not a simple relationship that merits a special warning label on soft drinks.
Half Truths:
"There is no clear and consistent association between increased intake of added sugars and [weight]," stated a 2002 report from the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine titled, "Dietary Reference Intakes on Macronutrients."
(He's using the information that he agrees with)
Fear/ Exaggeration/ Speaking for an opponent
The researchers also noted a study linking white bread with caries. Will CSPI also demand that consumers be warned about the risk of tooth decay that might be posed by sandwich bread, French bread and pizza?
And so on and so forth.
Milloy is a well educated guy, but he also knows exactly how conniving he is being. CSPI may have the wrong idea, but they have the best interests of the American people at hand, and the influence of big cola on kids is real. Milloy knows that, but he is trashing (and has been trashing fore a decade now) science. Can you guess why?
Here's why. Milloy is directly paid by the soft drink industry. In fact, they pay the guy through a front organization, and he takes their money and goes on FOX news and blabs out everything they want him to say.
Follow the trial. Here's his dummy organization....and here's where they get the money to pay their people.......and there's the motivation behind this guy slandering Dr. Willett, the CSPI and every person in this country who wants to get the influence of big cola companies out of our children's lives. I don't want warning labels on colas. I just want the drink machines out of the schools and I want FOX news to stop putting these corporate whores like Milloy all over the tube, or at least tell the viewers out there what these people are really all about.
The next time you hear some loudmouth talking about tree huggers, etc...think about how easily people like Milloy have access to television and print media to get the corporate line out there, and little the other side gets to tell their story. This is but one small example of how the truth gets sold like a can of beans in a souless corporate society...and it filters down quickly too, from the board room to the TV news to the dinner table and right down to the right wing blogs and mass e-mails.
Behold what we have become. Cross posted to Distance.