News
The most recent headlines stories are listed below. For a complete archive of past headlines visit the Center for Consumer Freedom at www.ConsumerFreedom.comYou Don't Need a "Market Shift" to Buy Safe Cosmetics
Dec 19, 2011
The worrywarts at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (a project affiliated with the Environmental Working Group) released their “Market Shift” report at the beginning of the month, and it contained what we’ve come to expect from these organic-obsessed activists. Whether they’re raising scares about pesticides later debunked by peer-reviewed studies, trumping up scares about drinking water, or charging that retinol (a.k.a. Vitamin A) in sunscreens can cause cancer, EWG and its allies use public scientific illiteracy and irrational fear of chemicals to push an organic, anti-corporate agenda. It’s worth keeping in mind that 79 percent of members of the Society of Toxicologists recently surveyed agree that EWG overstates the health risks of chemicals.
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Year in Review: High Fructose Corn Syrup
Dec 19, 2011
As the year closes, we’ll offer some looks back at how issues have developed and progressed over the last year. We’re starting with high fructose corn syrup. You know, that natural sweetener that bloggers and Internet denizens like to beat up?
We’ve been saying for years that this sugar made from corn is nutritionally no different than sugar made from beets or sugar cane. This year, we saw more and more public embrace of the simple fact that sugar is sugar. We even saw Dr. Oz lighten up on his previous singling-out of high fructose corn syrup. (Maybe he had to make room for promoting pseudoscience.)
Hype Dispelled by Hype Maker
The high fructose corn syrup “controversy” started in 2004 with a hypothesis co-authored by North Carolina professor Barry Popkin, in which he speculated that high fructose corn syrup could be behind the rise in obesity rates. It was a classic example of correlation versus causation. But what does he say these days?
“Now I feel really bad,” Popkin says. “We were only speculating that there might be an adverse effect; it kind of allowed people to take off on high-fructose corn syrup as an evil….All sugar you eat is the same. That’s what we know now that we didn’t know in 2004.”
Michael Pollan Issues Mea Culpa
Barry Popkin wasn’t the only person to admit a syrupy mistake. Journalism professor Michael Pollan, who made big hubbub about high fructose corn syrup (and corn generally) in his books, admits he’s helped demonize high fructose corn syrup:
I've done a lot to demonize it. And people took away the message that there was something intrinsically wrong with it. A lot of research says this isn't the case. But there is a problem with how much total sugar we consume.
Wordsmiths Recognize Need for Change
A brouhaha broke out after high fructose corn syrup makers petitioned the FDA to allow the use of the name “corn sugar” instead of “high fructose corn syrup.” Some called it a cynical move. But many newspapers recognized that change is needed for consumers.
The Los Angeles Times editorial board writes that “corn sugar is probably a more understandable term.” Other papers have argued that “It’s hard to get simpler and clearer than corn sugar” and “There's no reason for [the FDA] to delay longer” in approving the change.
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Quote of the Week
Dec 5, 2011
It’s past time for the salt scaremongering to stop. Haven’t the food police read one new study after the next casting serious doubt on the food activists and bureaucrats who think salt is a silent “killer” that should be controlled? According to an author of recent research in the American Journal of Hypertension, “it is likely that reduced salt intake does not have a beneficial effect. On the contrary the net effect may be harmful.” No kidding.
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Food Is Not Tobacco, No Matter How Much the Trial Bar May Pray
Nov 30, 2011
Trial attorneys have hoped for the better part of a decade that food companies could be the next deep-pocketed targets for fat-headed lawsuit campaigns. And, despite legal defeats, they still hope for an obese payday. The latest ploy is to claim that food is addictive like a drug, and that got a bit of attention after a recent 60 Minutes piece featured the theory.
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