I find that the title of his book reinforces stereotypes. Americans don't necessarily have insatiable appetites. And while I have no doubt the food industry plays dirty tricks, the failure to move beyond obesity = gluttony paradigm hurts everyone. People also need to realize yoyo dieting makes them fatter (many have gained weight through years of self-denial, not indulgence), as do environmental endocrine disrupters, stress, overwork and genetics. In all fairness I haven't read the book, but I have heard the argument before.
I think mandatory labeling on restaurant menus is a terrible idea. They should be available for those who want them, not forced in the face of those who want to enjoy their dining experience free of weight obsession and diet babble. It would be far better to raise awareness of how additives like MSG are contributing to diabetes and thus weight gain. And it is in EVERYTHING, even those "healthy" (choke) meals from Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisine.
That this is not covered in MSM is only a surprise to those who have been asleep for the last few years and still think the press is looking out for their interests. What is disheartening beyond description is how many doctors don't realize how much "science" is nothing more than marketing. From their professors with drug ties in med school, to those fancy "informational" lunches provided by drug reps, it is all about Pharma's profit first. Wake Up America!!! And then put your pills down!
David Kessler was not Surgeon General, of course. He was chief of the FDA...wherein reside representatives of just about every industry that the FDA is supposed to regulate.
Pfizer's Sorbitol, now in the hands of Archer Daniels Midland and Hoffman la Roche, is a synthetic sweetener on the long list of untested, often toxic, additives from which cigarette makers concoct their secret recipes.
Pfizer has never been called to respond to its part in making ordinarily rough tobacco smoke appealing to young people...or to answer the question of how it knew that Sorbitol, when burned, was safe in this use.
Pfizer's smoking cessation drug is a way for the firm to make money again off of Guinea pigged smokers. This might be called "The Zeneca Ploy". Zeneca was a manufacturer of pesticides for use on tobacco...again, without a shred of study of the actual or probable health effects of the residues (alone, or in combo with other toxins and carcinogens) on smokers....and with no listing of the residues on ingredients labels, there being no ingredients labels required by industry-allied law makers. Zeneca, perhaps fearing embarrassing exposures of its role in the hated cigarette cartel, has now gotten out of the "agricultural chemical" business.
Now Zeneca profits with cancer "cure" drugs sold to those who may well be victims of its own tobacco pesticide residues....that is, along with any number of other pesticide residues from among the 450 pesticides that are registered by the U.S. for use on tobacco.
To add injury to injury, Zeneca's Tamaxofen "cancer cure" is itself reported to be a carcinogen.
For-profit health insurers profit by their large holdings in not only cigarette manufacturers but also makers of tobacco pesticides and perhaps most suppliers of of non-tobacco cigarette ingredients. Insurers profit from smokers yet again by charging them more for policies...and by other investments in pharmaceuticals that make "cessation" drugs, patented nicotine-delivery products, or medicines that treat the many illnesses caused by, or exacerbated by, the plethora of non-tobacco cigarette adulterants, most notably, the dioxin-creating chlorine substances (pesticide residues and the chlorine-bleached paper).
It's too bad Pfizer can't come up with a drug to be given to cigarette makers, ingredients' suppliers, and public officials that will lead to Cessation of Adulterating Tobacco and poisoning unwitting smokers with untested and known toxic and cancer-causing substances.
I've gotten several emails about this from people asking why journalists aren't treating it as a bigger news scandal. Part of what physicians seem to find shocking is that Elsevier is doubling as both a publisher of respected medical journals and as publisher of "a pseudojournal that's nothing more than an advertising vehicle for Merck" as well as "virtually any speculations authors want to publish with minimal peer review":
I find that the title of his book reinforces stereotypes. Americans don't necessarily have insatiable appetites. And while I have no doubt the food industry plays dirty tricks, the failure to move beyond obesity = gluttony paradigm hurts everyone. People also need to realize yoyo dieting makes them fatter (many have gained weight through years of self-denial, not indulgence), as do environmental endocrine disrupters, stress, overwork and genetics. In all fairness I haven't read the book, but I have heard the argument before.
I think mandatory labeling on restaurant menus is a terrible idea. They should be available for those who want them, not forced in the face of those who want to enjoy their dining experience free of weight obsession and diet babble. It would be far better to raise awareness of how additives like MSG are contributing to diabetes and thus weight gain. And it is in EVERYTHING, even those "healthy" (choke) meals from Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisine.
That this is not covered in MSM is only a surprise to those who have been asleep for the last few years and still think the press is looking out for their interests. What is disheartening beyond description is how many doctors don't realize how much "science" is nothing more than marketing. From their professors with drug ties in med school, to those fancy "informational" lunches provided by drug reps, it is all about Pharma's profit first. Wake Up America!!! And then put your pills down!
David Kessler was not Surgeon General, of course. He was chief of the FDA...wherein reside representatives of just about every industry that the FDA is supposed to regulate.
Pfizer's Sorbitol, now in the hands of Archer Daniels Midland and Hoffman la Roche, is a synthetic sweetener on the long list of untested, often toxic, additives from which cigarette makers concoct their secret recipes.
Pfizer has never been called to respond to its part in making ordinarily rough tobacco smoke appealing to young people...or to answer the question of how it knew that Sorbitol, when burned, was safe in this use.
Pfizer's smoking cessation drug is a way for the firm to make money again off of Guinea pigged smokers. This might be called "The Zeneca Ploy". Zeneca was a manufacturer of pesticides for use on tobacco...again, without a shred of study of the actual or probable health effects of the residues (alone, or in combo with other toxins and carcinogens) on smokers....and with no listing of the residues on ingredients labels, there being no ingredients labels required by industry-allied law makers. Zeneca, perhaps fearing embarrassing exposures of its role in the hated cigarette cartel, has now gotten out of the "agricultural chemical" business.
Now Zeneca profits with cancer "cure" drugs sold to those who may well be victims of its own tobacco pesticide residues....that is, along with any number of other pesticide residues from among the 450 pesticides that are registered by the U.S. for use on tobacco.
To add injury to injury, Zeneca's Tamaxofen "cancer cure" is itself reported to be a carcinogen.
For-profit health insurers profit by their large holdings in not only cigarette manufacturers but also makers of tobacco pesticides and perhaps most suppliers of of non-tobacco cigarette ingredients. Insurers profit from smokers yet again by charging them more for policies...and by other investments in pharmaceuticals that make "cessation" drugs, patented nicotine-delivery products, or medicines that treat the many illnesses caused by, or exacerbated by, the plethora of non-tobacco cigarette adulterants, most notably, the dioxin-creating chlorine substances (pesticide residues and the chlorine-bleached paper).
It's too bad Pfizer can't come up with a drug to be given to cigarette makers, ingredients' suppliers, and public officials that will lead to Cessation of Adulterating Tobacco and poisoning unwitting smokers with untested and known toxic and cancer-causing substances.
I've gotten several emails about this from people asking why journalists aren't treating it as a bigger news scandal. Part of what physicians seem to find shocking is that Elsevier is doubling as both a publisher of respected medical journals and as publisher of "a pseudojournal that's nothing more than an advertising vehicle for Merck" as well as "virtually any speculations authors want to publish with minimal peer review":
[http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/05/when_big_pharma_pays_a_publisher_to_publ.php http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/05/when_big_pharma_pays_a_publisher_to_publ.php]
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