Guest guest Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:04:40 -0500 HSI - Jenny Thompson Swimming Too Low Swimming Too Low Health Sciences Institute e-Alert August 25, 2003 ************************************************************** Dear Reader, Are you fish or fowl? This is a well-known marketing maxim. The idea is simple: you can't present yourself to the world as both, so decide on a clear message and stay with it. Because if you're a fish, no matter how successful you are, a stroll through the barnyard is a bad idea. I was reminded of this when I was browsing through the current issue (Sept. 2003) of Consumer Reports magazine (CR). Once again, CR editors have riled me up with half-baked health advice when they should be sticking to their area of expertise, which they're very good at: testing and rating laptops, SUVs, etc. In this one issue, CR had two chances to get health and nutrition information right, and in both cases they got it wrong. And when I compared one item to the other, it left me wondering: Is this thing supposed to swim or fly? ----------------------------- The replacements ----------------------------- I don't know about you, but I find the term " meal-replacement drink " to be a little suspicious. It's like saying, " Your regularly scheduled meal couldn't make it. But here's something that sort of passes for a meal. " In the " Up Front " feature of September's CR, taste-testers rate four meal-replacement drinks: Yoplait Nouriche, Frulatte, Slim-Fast, and Snapple-a-Day. Yoplait Nouriche won the tasters approval, and the article ends with the recommendation to choose the Yoplait over the others. Now - if the editors of CR are truly covering the health and nutrition beat, how can they possibly recommend a product like Yoplait Nouriche, which contains 46 grams of sugar? That's equivalent to about 10 teaspoons of sugar. And they admit this in the article, but still recommend it anyway! Meanwhile, in keeping with the outmoded and misguided mainstream tunnel-vision on the " importance " of low-fat, they point out that these drinks qualify as low-fat or no-fat. But they never mention carbohydrates. And I can understand why, because with 54 net grams of carbohydrates, a single bottle of Yoplait Nouriche practically qualifies as carbo-loading. That's the carb equivalent to almost 2 bagels! So in terms of nutrition, there's simply no way you could reasonably consider 54 grams of carbs and 10 teaspoons of sugar to be a healthy meal replacement. ----------------------------- Missing details ----------------------------- Meanwhile, CR editors want you to be aware that you may be encouraging disease by choosing the wrong dietary supplement. " Did you know? " asks the headline of a tiny box on the CR Health page toward the end of the September issue. Contained in the box is a warning that supplements of " beta-carotene (a source of vitamin A) may increase your risk of disease. " This warning is prompted by a study I told you about on June 16th in the e-Alert " Blinders in Place, " in which Cleveland Clinic Foundation researchers reviewed several trials that evaluated the effectiveness of vitamin A in preventing death or stroke due to cardiovascular events. What the little CR warning box doesn't mention is that most of the participants in the studies either already had heart or blood vessel disease or were at increased risk of such problems. For reasons that are not yet clear, a high intake of beta- carotene has been shown to complicate heart problems for smokers. Two of the beta-carotene trials examined in this research included subjects who were smokers (which qualified them for the study as having a risk factor for heart disease). In both trials the increased risk of death occurred mostly with smokers taking large doses of beta-carotene, and it was this set of statistics that resulted in the widely reported blanket claim that beta-carotene may increase the risk of death. So if you're a non-smoker who is not at risk of heart disease, will you be inviting disease if you take a standard dose of beta-carotene? Of course not. But these important details are not included in the CR warning. ----------------------------- When chickens go swimming ----------------------------- With the beta-carotene item, CR based their warning on information picked up from a news wire service, and simply took it at face value without questioning the details. And with the meal-replacement taste test, they removed their " health " hat and glossed over the nutritional details. Is that any way to serve consumers who need sound health advice? If you're going to provide a health alert, then you've got to explore more than just the taste of quickie meals. And if you're going to provide a consumer report, then don't waste our time with half-baked health warnings that have no more insight than rewrites of wire stories. That's the thing that bothers me most: that CR readers may be acting on such wobbly health advice, trusting that CR wouldn't let them down. Beware the fish that gives you advice about feathers. ************************************************************** ... and another thing Don't " honey " your baby. In " This week in the HSI e-Alert " on Friday, 8/8/03, I told you about an HSI Forum thread that discussed the benefits of raw honey over the standard commercial honeys, which tend to be homogenized and pasteurized. That discussion prompted an e-mail from a member named Anne who passed along this warning: " Please mention that while honey is a perfectly safe substance for adults and children over the age of 2, it should NOT be given to babies and small children (under 2). Honey contains a bacterium that is harmless to humans once our immune systems are fully developed, but this bacterium can be deadly to the under-2 crowd while their immune systems are still developing. Honey in any form, should NEVER be given to anyone under the age of 2. " Anne is correct, although the sources I've found indicate that it's probably okay for infants to have honey anytime after their first birthday. In e-Alerts and HSI Members Alerts we've written about the beneficial bacteria (called probiotic organisms) that inhabit the digestive tract and help keep harmful bacteria in check. This healthy " gut flora " also produces valuable nutrients (including certain B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids), digestive enzymes like lactase, and immune chemicals that even fight cancer cells. Both raw and processed honey contains spores of botulinum bacteria that can develop into botulism in the digestive tracts of newborns because probiotic organisms are not completely developed during the first year of life. If only a very small amount of these spores reaches an infant's digestive tract, paralysis of the diaphragm can result, sometimes causing asphyxiation. So by all means, parents should wait until the second or third year before they sweeten their infant's life with honey. To Your Good Health, Jenny Thompson Health Sciences Institute ************************************************************** Sources: " Does a Meal in a Bottle Beat One in a Can? " Consumer Reports, September 2003, consumerreports.org " Beta-Carotene Dangers " Consumer Reports, September 2003, consumerreports.org " Use of Antioxidant Vitamins for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: Meta-Analysis of Randomised Trials " The Lancet 2003; 361: 2017-23 " Study Finds Antioxidant Vitamins Useless " Emma Ross, Associated Press, 6/12/03, ap.org " Gram Carb Counter " Atkins.com " Yoplait Nutritional Facts " Yoplaitusa.com " Honey Can Give Your Infant Botulism " Careful Parents, carefulparents.com " Food Safety: Tips for Feeding Infants and Young Children " National Network for Child Care, nncc.org. Copyright ©1997-2003 by www.hsibaltimore.com, L.L.C. The e-Alert may not be posted on commercial sites without written permission. ************************************************************** Before you hit reply to send us a question or request, please click here http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ealert/questions.html ************************************************************** If you'd like to participate in the HSI Forum, search past e-Alerts and products or you're an HSI member and would like to search past articles, visit http://www.hsibaltimore.com ************************************************************** To learn more about HSI, call (203) 699-4416 or visit http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/HSI/WHSID618/home.cfm. ************************************************************** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.