It’s not just individuals who can lose perspective. Look at big government organizations.
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The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.
– Oliver Goldsmith
Smoke from a food plant that gets into a nearby home is considered by economists to be a negative “externality;” a side effect that affects people that do not enjoy creating or consuming the food. Another example of a negative externality is noise pollution, such as from nearby airports, that has been linked to high blood pressure.
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Kelloggs appears to be headed back to court. Previously, they settled a class action lawsuit for $13 million because they labeled their cereals as “heart healthy” or “lightly sweetened” when the plaintiffs alleged they contained excessive amounts of sugar. It’s not clear to me what is excessive in an individual product, but certainly our consumption of sugar is probably obsessive. According to some, men should consume less than 9 teaspoons a day, women less than 6. On average, we are consuming 153 pounds per year of sugar (an average of about 46 teaspoons a day). Oddly enough, the FDA’s recommendation (given by the % Daily Value) is 50 grams of added sugar a day.
It hasn’t stopped there for Kelloggs.
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One of the least appreciated theories in health is the hormetic relationships of exposures (for things like chemicals and radiation) to health. Put simply, a little bit is good for you, a lot is bad for you. Researchers, like Ed Calabrese of UMass, have been investigating these relationships for years and find that they apply to things we wouldn’t necessarily expect like mercury, arsenic and radiation (very bad for you at high levels but good for you in small amounts). It also applies to things we would expect like some vitamins (e.g., vitamin A), exercise and virtually anything we eat. Here’s what a hormetic relationship looks like:
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“Extra! Extra! Read All About It.”
Fixing Food: An FDA Insider Unravels the Myths and the Solutions arrives today. In the book, I tell stories of actual events that occurred while I was at FDA, like an early encounter with a senior manager who tells me we must make sure that all canned pear halves are the same size so that dinner parties run smoothly. In addition to stories, you will find out why one day foods, like eggs, are considered toxic and the next they are considered a superfood (hint, it’s about nutrition science). Or why, using FDA’s way of thinking about food safety, you would consider drinking more than a glass of water a day unsafe. Finally, you will find out why FDA is taking years trying to decide if Almond Milk should be allowed to be called milk.
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What on earth could the Communist dictator have to do with dieting? First, absolutely nothing with the Russian branch of Papa John’s Pizza who gave free pizza’s away in 2016 if people in Russia could name a person that had a Soviet tank named after him (above picture). But I do want to make a point about individuals and averages (means), so I have a perfectly ridiculous poll to explain it at the end.
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