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America’s self-anointed food police have a new punching bag in their obesity crusade: fruit juice. We’re not making this up. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that a growing number of dietary do-gooders are now pointing their fingers at juice as a culprit for fattening waistlines:The inconvenient truth, many experts say, is that 100% fruit juice poses the same obesity-related health risks as Coke, Pepsi and other widely vilified beverages. … [I]t's time juice lost its wholesome image, these experts say."It's pretty much the same as sugar water," said Dr. Charles Billington, an appetite researcher at the University of Minnesota....

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a self-proclaimed consumer advocacy group, came out with a list of the “The Ten Riskiest Foods Regulated By the U.S. Food And Drug Administration,” and frankly, Caroline Smith DeWaal, who is the Director of Food Safety for the group and who serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Produce Safety and thus knows better, should be ashamed of herself.

The New York Times reports today that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been caught “salt-handed.� Despite targeting sodium in his latest nanny-state crusade, the mayor privately enjoys pouring it on by the shaker-load: Under his watch, the city has declared sodium an enemy, asking restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily cut the salt in their dishes by 20 percent or more, and encouraging diners to “shake the habit� by asking waiters for food without added salt.But Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt...

On July 4, 1776, America’s founding fathers signed their names to the Declaration of Independence in an effort to affirm basic liberties. But they never dreamed that anyone would someday attempt to strip the American people of the fundamental liberty to control what we eat and drink. In the spirit of affirming this simple freedom, we offer our Declaration of Food Independence. Because, as we’re telling Arizona Daily Star readers today, the pursuit of happiness is a lot harder on an empty stomach.

"And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the Pepsi drinker!" There has to be a statement about soft drinks tucked somewhere in Leviticus. I have assurances, after all, that such beverages are wicked. Sin taxes normally are levied on so-called vices, such as drinking, smoking, and gambling. Now Congress is "studying" a proposal to legislate morality by taxing sugary beverages—which is to say, it is "studying" whether such a tax would be politically feasible. According to the executive director of the Center for "Science" in...

This was from a few months ago, there was a more recent article but I can't find it. It's funny, we now have 30 years of research supporting the artificial food dye-kid hyperactivity link, yet our FDA has done nothing. Once again, we have given all responsibility of something (our food) to politicians (FDA) who only have to pretend their doing something. Just as troubling is how secretive and unregulated the food ingredient and chemical businesses are. Here's out it works: They say its safe, and the politicians that they pay off agree. Note in the article below that American...

According to one energy security expert, unless prosperity exists people simply will not care about climate change. Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, said on July 11 that the poor have other priorities than global warming. “They [poor people] could not give a damn about climate change because they want 24 hours a day light,” said Luft who cited the example of people living in slums outside Bangalore, India. “In India alone, 600 million people are not connected even to the [power] grid,” said Luft, “When you talk to these people all you...

My February 2002 column, "They're Coming After You," warned that Americans who enthusiastically supported the anti-tobacco zealots' attack on smokers were, like decent Germans did during the 1920s and '30s, building the Trojan Horse that would one day enable a tyrant to take over. The whole issue of tobacco smoke nuisance is really a private property issue where the owner should decide how his private property shall be used, whether it's an office building, restaurant, bar or home. That's unless one group of people wishes to use the coercive powers of government, in the name of health or some other...

Following the lead of New York City and Brookline, health regulators in Boston last night took the first step toward banning artery-clogging trans fat from French fries, doughnuts, and other food sold in restaurants and corner stores. more stories like this The Boston Public Health Commission voted unanimously, after little discussion, to give preliminary approval to a ban that would take effect late this year if it receives another thumbs-up in the spring. Commission members were spurred to action by scientific evidence linking artificial trans fat to heart disease in humans and to diabetes and obesity in animal studies. Brookline...

OLLEGE PARK, Md., Nov 29 (Reuters) - Public health advocates on Thursday called for tighter restrictions on salt content in food, arguing that cutting the nutrient's overuse by most Americans could save thousands of lives annually. Excessive salt in Americans' diets is a major factor in high blood pressure and increases risk for heart disease, while most Americans exceed recommended limits, according to health experts. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) cited these factors in urging stricter regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at a public hearing, held on Thursday at the FDA. Trimming the...

Oh Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who's the most revisionist of us all? Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) provides the classic example of chutzpah, like when the child who murders his parents pleads for mercy in court because he is an orphan! In this case, the crime is the complete ruination of the food supply with the replacement of healthy traditional saturated fats with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and the victim is the unsuspecting public, suffering from ever-increasing rates of cancer, heart disease, infertility, impotence, asthma, allergies, learning disabilities, bone problems, digestive disorders, diabetes and obesity. On...

A U.S. consumer group called for an urgent Food and Drug Administration review of the safety of aspartame on Monday, but the FDA said there was no immediate need to do so despite a new study showing the sweetener may cause cancer.  Italian researchers published a new study last week that showed aspartame -- widely used in soft drinks -- might cause leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats.   "This is the second study by the same lab showing that aspartame causes cancer in rats," Center for Science in the Public Interest executive director Michael Jacobson said in a telephone...

NEW YORK - Don't expect to see the calorie count for Burger King's Double Whopper with cheese on the menu anytime soon. Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's are among the chains planning to defy New York City's new rule that they begin posting calories on menus Sunday. Other big fast food eateries like Taco Bell and KFC aren't saying whether they will comply, but with just days to go until the deadline, the menu boards in their Big Apple restaurants remain unchanged. All are hoping a New York Restaurant Association lawsuit in federal court will get the new regulation thrown...

Junk food will head to the junk heap in Bay State schools if a bill to be pushed by top health experts on Beacon Hill today succeeds in banning fatty and sugary foods from school vending machines, bake sales and fund-raisers. Backers of the junk food bill say it sets statewide standards, forces students to eat better and cuts down on ads kids see each day. “These are habits that last a lifetime,” said Eric Weltman, spokesman for the Massachusetts Public Health Association, one of the backers of the bill, which would also ban corporate food and soda marketing inside...

WASHINGTON, May 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- By using partially hydrogenated oil, Burger King is knowingly increasing its customers' risk of heart disease and early death, according to a lawsuit filed today by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. CSPI is asking a District of Columbia Superior Court judge to order the restaurant chain to stop using the deadly trans-fat-laden ingredient, or at least to require prominent warning notices on Burger King's menu boards. According to CSPI, Burger King is the biggest restaurant chain that is not fully committed to getting rid of the artificial trans fat found in...

Judge Throws Out CSPI-Inspired Lawsuit May 4, 2007 On Wednesday the Center for the Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) received yet another legal smackdown from the judicial establishment, as Federal Judge James Robertson dismissed a CSPI-inspired lawsuit against KFC. Last year, CSPI's Dr. Arthur Hoyte sued the popular chicken chain for failing "to disclose the presence of trans fat in its food." Hoyte has feigned shock all along that KFC's deep-fried offerings are prepared in a popular frying oil. Ultimately, though, that stunning lack of common sense didn't figure in Judge Robertson's decision. As the judge sarcatically wrote: [I]t...

WASHINGTON—Anheuser-Busch should drop its sponsorship of a Washington, D.C. charity event called the "Idiotarod," organized by a local group that goes by the acronym "SMASHED," according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The March 3 event, in which young people are urged to acquire shopping carts and drink beer in one bar after another, is in clear violation of the Beer Institute's Advertising and Marketing Code, which prohibits marketing which encourages rapid or excessive beer drinking or drinking games, according to the group. "Prepare your liver," the SMASHED organizers say on their web site. "We...

An advocacy group that once lobbied for mandatory nutrition labels for groceries has set it sights on restaurant chains and is asking the federal government to require large chains to offer calorie, fat and sodium information on menus. The Center for Science in the Public Interest on Monday criticized several food chains for promoting what the group calls "x-treme eating" with dishes that include more calories and fat than most people should eat in one day. The government recommends that the average American consume around 2,000 calories per day, with less than 10 percent of the calories coming from saturated...

Political Islam has annihilated every culture it has invaded or immigrated to. The total time for annihilation takes centuries, but once Islam is ascendant it never fails. The host culture disappears and becomes extinct. We must learn the doctrine of political Islam to survive. The doctrine is very clear that all forms of force and persuasion may and must be used to conquer us. Islam is a self-declared enemy of all unbelievers. The brilliant Chinese philosopher of war, Sun Tsu, had the dictum—know the enemy. We must know the doctrine of our enemy or be annihilated. Or put another way:...

The Study of Political Islam By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | February 5, 2007  Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Bill Warner, the director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPI). CSPI’s goal is to teach the doctrine of political Islam through its books and it has produced a series on its focus. Mr. Warner did not write the CSPI series, but he acts as the agent for a group of scholars who are the authors. FP: Bill Warner, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Warner: Thank you Jamie for this opportunity.   FP: Tell us a bit about the Center for...

by Mark Finkelstein September 29, 2006 - 08:11 The big political news of the day at the 'Today' show was the Bob Woodward book, State of Denial. Turf battles and rivalries in a White House - who would have thought it? Dems are presumably clinging to it as the Last Best Hope for Liberal-kind. But in terms of revealing the liberal MSM mindset, I found much more interesting a few off-the-cuff comments made by members of the Today cast. At the end of the first half hour, the entire gang was gathered on the studio couch, and talk turned to...

An E. coli outbreak in pre-packaged spinach proved a convenient excuse for ABC to push for more regulation of American agriculture, citing the pro-regulation, anti-food industry Center for Science in the Public Interest as merely a “food safety” advocate. “As ABC’s Lisa Stark explains, this case is calling into question how the entire food supply is monitored,” anchor Charles Gibson said, introducing Stark’s story. After a brief sound bite from Tom Stenzel of the United Fresh Produce Association defending the industry’s commitment to safety, Stark set out to push for more regulation. “Food safety groups say part of what’s wrong...

They wanted to sue over sodas in school, they even complained about 2 percent milk, and now they’re after fruit juices. But to the Washington Post, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is just another health-conscious consumer advocacy group. The June 28 Washington Post featured CSPI’s latest complaints about fruit drinks on the front page of its weekly Food section. Staff writer Candy Sagon began by reporting on the additional business juice vendors are enjoying as the nation’s three largest soft drink makers agreed to end soda sales to public schools. But Sagon quickly shifted to complaints...

Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) has become a convenient morning stop on many hectic commutes. Recent studies have even pointed to coffee’s potential in helping to prevent cirrhosis of the liver. But on ABC, the coffee maker was criticized during a “consumer alert” that treated cups of coffee like a “dose” of a hard drug. The June 19 edition of “Good Morning America” presented Starbucks as akin to a narcotics dealer preying on addicts. Correspondent Elizabeth Leamy explained “many customers love their regular dose.” The camera then cut to a shot of an apparent Starbucks consumer who referred to her relationship with...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp. may be next on the target list of a consumer-health group that this week sued the operator of the KFC fried chicken restaurant chain for frying foods in oils high in harmful trans fat. The Center for Science in the Public Interest said it is planning to campaign against the global cafe chain because of the increased risk of obesity, heart disease and cancer associated with high-calorie, high-fat products it sells. And the possibility of legal action against Starbucks, similar to the case it is taking against KFC owner Yum Brands Inc., has not...

ABC’s Charlie Gibson promised his June 13 “World News Tonight” viewers a look at “why a leading consumer group has a bone to pick over the fat in KFC food.” But that organization was none other than the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an anti-food industry group that has had a beef with everything from movie theater popcorn to soda pop. “The Center for Science in the Public Interest is taking KFC to court over the trans fat used to fry the chicken,” Gibson noted as he introduced a segment by correspondent Elisabeth Leamy. “The consumer group says...

Doctors will this week declare war on America's soft drinks industry by calling for a 'fat tax' to combat the nation's obesity epidemic. Delegates at the powerful American Medical Association's annual conference will demand a levy on the sweeteners put in sugary drinks to pay for a massive public health education campaign. They will also call for the amount of salt added to burgers and processed foods to be halved. The moves come as U.S. doctors - like their British counterparts - are becoming increasingly alarmed at the growing number of deaths linked to obesity. The resolution will put doctors...

NEW YORK, Feb. 20 — As more and more children grow obese eating fatty foods saturated with sugar, consumer advocates battling to curb marketing by food companies are threatening to use their big guns: lawsuits and bad press. And it appears to be working. Although no lawsuits have been filed, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is talking with Kellogg and representatives for soft drink companies -- including Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. -- about the way they sell products to children, CSPI lawyer Stephen Gardner said. ''Unfortunately, many food companies maximize their profits by pitching junk...

A consumer group is demanding that Frito-Lay put warning labels on chips with the fat substitute olestra or face a lawsuit by a Massachusetts woman who says she got stomach cramps and had to use the bathroom quickly after eating the snacks. The Center for Science in the Public Interest said Wednesday that 30-year-old Lori Perlow of Braintree, Mass., would sue Frito-Lay under a consumer-friendly deceptive-advertising law in the Bay State. Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo Inc., said warning labels are not needed for its Light lines of potato and corn chips. "It's an extremely safe product, well-tested," said Frito-Lay...

Coffee's vindicators tout a message no one wants to hear This week brought news that coffee, long accused of causing cancer, actually helps prevent it. Reports that America's favorite beverage is chock-full of antioxidants came across exactly as one would expect—in the form of a gentle scolding. That a cup of joe carries ten times more antioxidants than a banana "does not mean coffee is a substitute for fruit and vegetables," warns Associated Press. "Americans are not eating enough fruits and vegetables, the sources of antioxidants...doctors recommend," Reuters cautions us 50 words in. Following a study by Joe A. Vinson...

Ask Michael Jacobson how he feels when critics call the Center for Science in the Public Interest the "food police" and he answers with the bravado that has made CSPI one of the most reviled enemies of big food companies. "Depends on who says it," said Jacobson, CSPI's executive director and co-founder. "People who say it with humor, I think 'fine.' Other people mean it in a derogatory way, and I think nasty thoughts about those people. "I see it in a way as food detectives, where we try to find out what's going on and we tell the public...

WHEN it comes to food fights, John Belushi's character in "Animal House" has nothing on Rick Berman. A prominent Washington lobbyist, Mr. Berman runs the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit advocacy group that is financed by the food and restaurant industries. Two months ago, after a report in a leading medical journal cast doubt on several assumptions about obesity, he pounced. His group ran $600,000 worth of full-page ads in a half-dozen newspapers, gloating that the study showed that obesity was not an "epidemic" but rather a lot of hype. "Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of obesity...

Bud Light Accused of Trivializing Alcoholism in New Ad Watchdog Groups Say Beer Ad Depicts Lying About Drinking WASHINGTON—-A new ad for Bud Light beer depicts men joking about lies they've told to cover up their daytime drinking, and two watchdog groups say the Federal Trade Commission should crack down and ask Anheuser-Busch to pull the ad. In a letter to FTC enforcement official Janet Evans, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) say the ad irresponsibly makes light of alcoholic behavior. The ad in question features a...

Not content knowing that some people continue to occasionally enjoy a meal, the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) launched their latest attack yesterday -- this time on salt. So CSPI has reaffirmed salt's place on its long list of nutritional no-nos, which includes milk, salad, and seafood. If you listen to CSPI -- why you would, we don't know -- that shaker on your dinner table might as well contain rat poison or cyanide. But considering the mixed scientific evidence, as well as CSPI's draconian solutions, you should take their latest attack...

It’s common for the major TV networks to run news stories that rewrite those that appeared in that day’s New York Times. It’s rarer to see a major news show resort to running press releases for advocacy organizations. Friday, ABC’s World News Tonight managed to do both.

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A consumer group sued the federal government on Thursday, saying that salt is killing tens of thousands of Americans and that regulators have done too little to control salt in food. Despite advisories to take it easy on sodium, Americans are now consuming about 4,000 milligrams a day -- nearly double the recommended limit to keep blood pressure under control, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said. So the CSPI renewed a lawsuit first filed in 1983 to ask federal courts to force the Food and Drug Administration to declare sodium a food...

Just in time for your New Year's resolutions, the obesity scaremongers at the Harvard School of Public Health cooked up another statistical stew that's just as hard to swallow as their previous broadsides. In a widely publicized study published last week by The New England Journal of Medicine, they purport to prove that physical activity does not negate the supposedly adverse health effects of obesity. Of this study's many flaws, one stands out: its measurement of physical exercise accounted for only the following activities: running, jogging, walking (outside, but not on a treadmill), biking, swimming laps (but not swimming in...

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has issued its list of "50 things to eat before you die" -- and with it, a rebuke of nutrition scolds and animal rights activists bent on controlling our food choices. While we can't vouch for everything on the viewer-voted list (kangaroo and Moreton Bay bugs come to mind), consumers have a right to eat what they please. Unfortunately, people like the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the bleating animal-rights activists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) want to take away almost every...

Food cops who think your weight is their business are bent on slimming Americans down by any means necessary. That includes happily ignoring such commonplaces as evidence, logic, and common sense. Reaching deep into their toolbox to hammer companies that advertise food to children, they're now invoking the "precautionary principle" -- a bizarre theory that insists everything should be banned until it's proved absolutely safe. Susan Linn, two-time speaker at the obesity-lawsuit-pushing Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) and dedicated opponent of all forms of advertising, recently told Obesity Policy Report: "I think that we need to take a leaf from...

Yesterday was declared "National No Soda Day" by an activist organization called the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) -- presently unaffiliated with the American Medical Association. The group argued that people should cut soda "out of their diets," and urged medical students around the nation to drop their cans and preach to the rest of us. The only problem for AMSA: its anti-soda statements, and the research that supposedly backs them up, are nothing more than fizz. In a "frequently asked questions" section of AMSA's website, the group notes that soda is just the first step in its anti-food-choice crusade....

"This may be the most important letter I've ever written," declares People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) president Ingrid Newkirk in a September 27 fundraising letter. "I can honestly say that, in the almost 25 years that PETA has been in existence, I've never -- never, ever! - witnessed a more organized, well-funded, multi-industry attack on animal rights and PETA than the one we're under right now. It is getting stronger every day ? We are number one on their hit list, and they are out for PETA's blood." For once, we agree with Newkirk. And we're thrilled...

"Certainly it's a marketing ploy. This is about marketing. It's not really about nutrition." That's what food cop Marion Nestle told NBC Nightly News last week, after General Mills announced that it would begin making all of its cereals from 100 percent whole grains. Nestle's histrionics fly in the face of some of the most ardent diet scolds -- including herself. Only a year ago, she told Newsday: "It's always better to have whole grains." It would seem that Nestle has never seen a nutrition improvement by a business that she liked. And it's becoming increasingly clear that she uses...

Washington, DC -- Attention parents and teachers! The food police have added whole and two-percent milk to the list of "poor nutritional quality" beverages in their crosshairs, recommending that they be removed from American's schools. This and other ridiculous assertions are contained in a report being circulated by the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The draft report, rumored to be released this month, bears the name of CSPI's activist coalition, the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA). NANA is part of an anti-soda crusade which advocates taxing sodas and restricting their...

Ronald Bailey'sColumns Caveat Emptor (3/24) The Health Care They Want to Give You Is A Right (7/7) The Best BioDefense is BioOffense (3/10) Earlier Columns July 14, 2004 Caveat Emptor The best science money can buy Ronald Bailey "Follow the money" is always a good rule when evaluating claims. If someone has a financial interest in something, there's always the possibility that their judgment might be somewhat biased. Following this maxim, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) held its second Integrity in Science Conference earlier this week. It was dedicated to examining "corporate and...

This morning's New York Times features a widely respected university professor and obesity researcher (in fact, the man who discovered the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin) decrying the distorted perception that Americans' waistlines are exploding. Dr. Jeffrey Friedman sharply criticized debates surrounding the national girth as "so political, so rife with misinformation and disinformation." In an effort to fight this particular obesity myth, Friedman points to a CDC study of the changes in American's body weights from 1991 to today, which shows that it's obesity hype -- and not the average American -- that's startlingly bloated. The Times reports that the CDC...

In response to the FDA's consideration of cigarette-style warning labels on "foods deemed unhealthy by government scientists," this week's special obesity-hype issue of TIME magazine prominently features a full-page "Common Sense Obesity Warning" from the Center for Consumer Freedom. A consortium of obesity hysterics and food cops descended on Williamsburg, Virginia this week at the "TIME/ABC News Summit on Obesity." As the event ground to a merciful halt today, TIME science editor Philip Elmer-Dewitt let the magazine's agenda be known: "We're going to keep [food] companies' feet to the fire, and this is not the last you're going to hear...

The front page of Sunday's Sacramento Bee features the Center for Consumer Freedom and its "counteroffensive" against lawmakers and activists who push for excessive regulations on our favorite foods and drinks. Anti-soda crusader Harold Goldstein tells the Bee that Americans simply can't be trusted with the complex task of feeding themselves. "The delusion is that we all make free choices," he insists. While Goldstein's rhetoric seems outrageous to most, inside the increasingly influential world of the food police, there's nothing unusual about it at all. Indeed, it's hard to find a card-carrying member of the Gastronomical Gestapo who doesn't dismiss...

The World Health Organization, whose mission involves tackling the scourges of AIDS and Malaria, now spends its valuable time and resources fretting that people like to eat steak and drink soda pop. Late last week, WHO released its "draft global strategy on diet, physical activity and health." Following this development, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a Saturday feature titled: "WHO wants 'Twinkie tax' to discourage junk foods." When Kelly Brownell first proposed the Twinkie tax, only reliable food scolds like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) thought it was a good idea. But now "sin" taxes on foods...

Forget that relaxing glass of wine, unless you want the neo-wowsers screaming 'bad role model', writes Miranda Devine. There is a certain type of person ever present in Australian life, devising ways to deny pleasure to the rest of the population. In Norman Lindsay's day wowsers were churchgoers purse-lipped about nudity. But now that the churches are empty and their moral restraints cast aside, today's wowsers have had to find fresh fun to eradicate, like alcohol, cigarettes, Big Macs, vanilla Coke, cars and air-conditioning. The neo-wowsers are obsessed with health and eco-concerns in just as mean and censorious a way...

When you see the American Heart Association's "heart healthy" label, you have some additional, helpful information about the product you're buying. That seems simple and obvious. But European bureaucrats have decided that their subjects are too stupid to handle such information. New rules governing food labels in Europe, would "put an end to endorsements by doctors or other health experts, because they might suggest that not eating the specified food could lead to health problems" (emphasis ours). Thankfully, the U.S. is going in the opposite direction. The FDA will allow "qualified health claims" on more products -- a move that,...